Takashi Miike’s Yatterman world premiere at NY Comic-Con

Organizers of New York Comic Con revealed that maverick Japanese director Takashi Miike will appear at its 2009 event as a Guest of Honor, along with superstar actor and pop star Sho Sakurai. Miike and Sakurai will be speaking about their upcoming feature film Yatterman—and then present the world premiere of the highly-anticipated movie, produced by Nikkatsu Studios and scheduled for release in Japan in early March.

Miike and Sakurai join Guests of Honor including Brian Michael Bendis, Carmine Infantino, Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, J. Michael Straczynski and Bruce Timm, along with Special Guests including Seth Green, J.J. Sedelmaier, Matt Senreich and Art Spiegelman.

Fans have been waiting for Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer, Sukiyaki Western Django) to create a giant robot movie for years, and finally it’s here. Starring Sho Sakurai, Yatterman is the story of two teenagers who run a high-tech toy shop which serves as a cover for their crime-busting exploits as a pair of masked super heroes. Miike’s Yatterman is based on a classic anime series created by Tatsuo Yoshida (founder of anime studio Tatsunoko Productions, which produced Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets, Casshern and Macross). Yoshida’s Yatterman originally premiered in 1977 and ran for 108 wildly popular episodes and was long considered by Miike as one of his dream projects. It was revived in 2008 as a crowd-pleasing television series, and now it hits the big screen as Nikkatsu’s Spring tentpole action blockbuster. With a massive budget and character and mecha designs by Katsuya Terada of Blood: The Last Vampire and Cutie Honey, it’s an over-the-top ride that, par for the course for director Miike, promises to turn the giant robot movie on its mechanical head.

Takashi Miike and Sho Sakurai will be at NYCC to speak about Yatterman at 4 PM on Friday, February 6 in the IGN Theater, and will present an exclusive 7-minute clip from the film. Both will then appear at the World Premiere of Yatterman at 8 PM the same day, at the New York Directors Guild Theater, at 110 West 57th Street. A limited number of free tickets for the screening will be made available at the Nikkatsu Booth (#1315) earlier on Friday.

An encore presentation of the film will also take place on Saturday, February 7, at 8:30 PM in the IGN Theater at Javits Center. Admission to the Saturday screening is free and open to all Comic Con attendees.

Both Miike and Sakurai will also be signing autographs at the Nikkatsu Booth (#1315) – fans should check at the booth for the exact signing schedule. The world premiere of Yatterman would not be possible without the tremendous support of Subway Cinema, Nikkatsu and The Kitano Hotel, the official hotel sponsor for the event.

The 2009 New York Comic Con takes place February 6th to 8th, at Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY. For more information about Yatterman and the other premieres and events at New York Comic Con, visit www.newyorkcomiccon.com and www.mediumatlarge.net.