The American film production company DreamWorks has revealed that it has licensed the rights to adapt Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell cyber-police manga into a 3D live-action film. The story of an elite paramilitary unit in future Japan has already been adapted into three animated films and two television anime series. DreamWorks has released the second animated Ghost in the Shell film, Innocence, in North America. DreamWorks also released Millennium Actress and produced Transformers, another   more...live-action science-fiction film with Japanese roots.

Variety reports that Universal and Sony also negotiated for the rights, which the Production I.G anime studio was pitching for the manga's original publisher Kodansha. What turned the dealmaking in DreamWorks' favor was co-founder Steven Spielberg's enthusiasm for the project. The entertainment trade newspaper quotes the acclaimed director and producer: "Ghost in the Shell is one of my favorite stories. It's a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks."

Avi Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios as well as of the Spider-Man and X-Men movie franchises), Arad's son Ari, and Seaside Entertainment's Steven Paul brought the project to DreamWorks and will produce. Jamie Moss (Street Kings, Last Man Home) has been assigned to script the project.

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Viz Media, LLC (Viz Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has licensed the Shonen Jump Death Note anime series to Adult Swim for domestic broadcast beginning Saturday, October 20 at midnight (EST) on the network's popular Adult Swim block of programming. New episodes will follow each week thereafter.

Shonen Jump Death Note is a suspenseful mystery, inspired by a 12-volume manga counterpart (published in North America   more...by Viz Media), and follows the adventures of Light Yagami, an ace student with great prospects but who is bored out of his mind. All of that changes when he finds the Death Note, a strange notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god named Ryuk. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals mysteriously begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal - or his life?

The unique storyline and complex characters, combined with visually stunning animation by Madhouse, made Shonen Jump Death Note one of the most popular anime series in Japan and anticipation for the North American release has built steadily since Viz Media first began publishing the manga series. Shonen Jump Death Note also spawned two successful live-action films, set for domestic distribution this year by VIZ Pictures, and a plethora of related posters, toys and action figures. Viz Media will further release Volume 1 of Death Note, containing 4-episodes, on DVD on November 20.
“The domestic broadcast debut of Death Note has been patiently awaited by fans across the country and we are pleased to team with Adult Swim to facilitate it,” states William Germain, Director, Animation Production, Viz Media., “The mix of drama, mystery and action has already made the Shonen Jump Death Note manga a hit and the anime series takes the characters and plot to the next level with a captivating visual style. We look forward to fans tuning in each week for the latest adventures of L and Light as they struggle to outwit each other and demonstrate conflicting ideas about right and wrong.”

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Viz Media has confirmed the names of the voice actors for its English-language release of Death Note. Brad Swaile and Alessandro Juliani will voice the two main leads, Light Yagami and L. Swaile is well-known as an anime voice actor, having voiced Quatre in Gundam Wing, Dearka in Gundam Seed, and Rock in Black Lagoon. Juliani has also contributed his voice to numerous cartoons, videogames and anime, but has recently moved into a career as an actor. He is currently featured in the science fiction   more...television series Battlestar Galactica, playing Lt. Gaeta.

Brian Drummond (Allen in The Vision of Escaflowne; Andy Waltfeld in Gundam Seed) will play Ryuk, while the voice actor for Misa will be Shannon Chan-Kent. Additional voice actors lending their voices to this dub will include:

Rem: Colleen Wheeler
Soichiro Yagami: Chris Britton
Matsuda: Vincent Tong
Mogi: John Murphy
Raye Penber: Michael Adamthwaite
Aizawa: Trevor Devall
Ukita: Jeremy From
Naomi Misora: Tabitha St. Germain
Ide: Brian Dobson


Several of these names were first announced at the Ocean Studios panel at Vancouver's Anime Evolution convention, which was held on August 18-20. At the panel, Ocean representatives also mentioned that they had dubbed twelve episodes of Death Note so far, and that the roles of Near and Mello were not yet cast. The first volume of Death Note will go on sale on November 20.

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Shooting will begin shortly for 20th Century Fox's upcoming live-action adaptation of Dragonball Z. The budget for the film is estimated to be at least US$100 million. This will be one of three big-budget movies that Fox will film in Montreal over the fall and winter, along with a sequel to Ben Stiller's "A Night at the Museum" and a Roland Emerich remake of 1966's "Fantastic Voyage." Production work on all three films is expected to wrap up by July of next year. Source: Montreal Gazette

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