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Soul Revolver, a manga currently serialized in Monthly Hero’s is getting a live-action movie adaptation. What’s more, the film is being worked on by Hollywood producers and it’s being created in Hollywood as well. This news was announced on July 31 by entertainment company Fields and All Nippon Entertainment Works (ANEW), a company that expands Japanese content into overseas markets.
Fields and ANEW are working cooperatively with Hollywood film company The Bedford Falls Company, and the live-action film is progressing. The Bedford Falls Company is a production company known for The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond. The screenplay is being developed cooperatively by three companies, with Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick of The Bedford Falls Company penning it and Zwick directing.
Soul Reviver tells the story of Revivers who rescue the souls of those in “The Death World,” a void between life and death. The original work was created by Tooru Fujisawa and Manabu Akishige. It is a stand-out work in the monthly manga magazine Hero’s. Hero’s is a publication created jointly by Shogakukan Creative and Fields. The magazine focuses on manga themed after heroes. It has also been the magazine’s goal from the beginning to develop works that can then be developed into other media. Representative works of the magazine include Ultraman and Majestic Prince. However, it has been decided that Soul Reviver will receive a global media development.
What is particularly interesting is that ANEW, which was established in 2011, is participating in the movie’s production. The goal of ANEW is to invest in new methods of reform for companies in the industry that are backed by the government and aim to strengthen the competitive power of the industry. The company aims to cooperate in overseas productions based on Japanese content. In 2012, the company announced a live-action Hollywood movie project for Toei Animation’s Gaiking, but since then the company hadn’t shown any major developments.
If the live-action film adaptation of Soul Reviver progresses without a hitch, it will be the first movie worked on by ANEW. This may be the entry point for movies produced cooperatively with Hollywood that are based on Japanese content, to which there are many challenges and high hurdles to overcome. With the start of the project, author Fujisawa, Herskovitz, and Zwick held a creative meeting in Hollywood, U.S. in July. There will likely be a large amount of interest around this project and how it will develop from here on.
Source: animeanime