Asian film

Ong Bak director has crime thriller Chocolate on tap

On February 10th, Magnolia Pictures, in another innovative distribution experiment, will release the martial arts crime thriller Chocolate on Blu-ray, four days after its theatrical premiere on February 6th. The story follows a girl named Zen, who was born out of an affair between two members of rival crime syndicates, that now lives in seclusion ….

Costumes from Takashi Miike’s “kid’s film” Yatterman revealed

Variety Asia and Japan Today posted some pics from Takashi Miike’s next film Yattaman, or Yatterman, based on an animation which first aired in Japan in the late 1970s. Miike, who has directed some of the most violent crime thrillers and bloody horrors in recent memory, is trying the teen genre. But this won’t his ….

Keanu Reeves will top-line Cowboy Bebop live-action film for Fox

It’s been reported for some time that Fox is overseeing a big-screen version of the popular Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop. Variety has confirmed that Keanu Reeves in fact attached to star as the easygoing bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, who wanders through space in search of fortune and good times, in the year 2071. Cowboy ….

Trailer for thriller Pintu Terlarang (Forbidden Door)

Variety’s Asian Film Blogger posted this trailer for the new film by Indonesian director Joko Anwar called Pintu Terlarang (Forbidden Door). Forbidden Door revolves around a successful sculptor whose life run by a domineering wife and mother, who discovers a secret organization where members can watch the lives of most dysfunctional, depraved families in town, ….

Bakugan anime to get feature film treatment from Universal

Variety reports that Universal has entered into a deal with toy company Spin Master to bring Bakugan Battle Brawlers to the big screen. The Japanese anime show airs six days a week on the Cartoon Network, and also has a strategy game that uses metal cards and magnetic, spring-loaded figures that transform from marble-like balls ….

Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii to give intro at premiere of Sky Crawlers

This Friday, December 12th, New York-Tokyo and the Film Society of Lincoln Center present the New York premiere of director Mamoru Oshii’s (Ghost in the Shell, PatLabor: The Mobile Police) latest film, The Sky Crawlers, which is described as an engaging combination of philosophy and science fiction, featuring brilliantly executed aerial combat sequences. Oshii sees ….

Animation community site goes global

The Association of Japanese Animations, an industry organization consisting mainly of animation production companies, recently announced that its community website, called Open Post, now has an English-language section. Open Post acts as a forum that provides animation professionals with an opportunity to submit and publish their work online. The new English-language section allows submissions from ….

Japanese anime company making live-action Bubblegum Crisis movie

Tokyo-based animation outfit Anime International Company (AIC) has contracted with Singapore-based Cubix, a visual software production company, to make a live-action version of the sci-fi anime series Bubblegum Crisis, according to Variety. The companies plan a large budget for the feature, directed towards a U.S. theatrical release sometime in 2011. Bubblegum Crisis creators Shinji Aramaki ….

Bullet Run, The Cage, High Stakes and more Asia-U.S. action thrillers moving forward

Producer David Lee’s Xinhua Media Entertainment shingle, which is a China-U.S. co-production unit set up in Los Angeles and Beijing, announced a five film production slate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Previously, Lee was the head of the Weinstein Company’s Asian Film Fund. The roster includes such Hollywood producers as Jon Shestack (Air Force One) ….