Yeees, Moon Phase reports that a sequel to the live-action Higurashi no Naku Koro ni film is being made.

More will be announced at the Higurashi road show event on May 10th, and the announcement talks about whether the film’s mystery will be made public and to carefully enjoy the new movie.

According to AICN, James Cameron’s next project is going to be a “small dramatic film in 3-D,” to prove the point that 3D isn’t just for big action and special effects, but can enhance the performance of actors in a dialogue scene as well.

Well, okay, AICN calls it Cameron’s “follow-up” to Avatar, but nothing they quote actually says it’ll be his “next” project. So there may still be hope for the Battle Angel movie (which, by the way, could be a really cool action flick in 3D…but a dialogue-only drama it ain’t), but I’m not sure I’d want to get too hopeful. This may mean that those rumors from a while back aren’t true, but only time will tell.

TokyoGraph reports that the live-action Dragon Ball flick, which has been pushed back from summer ‘08 to spring ‘09, is going to get a sequel. Never mind that it looks like the biggest train wreck film in recent memory, it needs a sequel!

Seriously, WTF?

Okay, it took me a sec to figure this one out because it seemed so random. But it looks like the 2006 (American) film Ultraviolet, starring Milla Jovovich and written/directed by Kurt Wimmer, is going to be adapted into an anime titled Ultraviolet: Code 44. It’s going to be directed by Osamu Dezaki, the director of Ashita no Joe and Ace wo Nerae! and it already sounds better than the actual movie. Here’s Wikipedia’s briefing on the original flick:

The film uses the basic premise of John Cassavetes’s 1980 cult classic Gloria, about a woman and a young boy on the run from the mafia, and transposes the story to a dystopian futuristic setting where genetically enhanced mutants are fighting a guerrilla war against a totalitarian government dictatorship. Many comparisons have been made between UltraViolet and Equilibrium, Wimmer’s previous film.

It was officially announced at TAF today, but I’m now noticing that there were rumors about a week ago, so some of you may have already had an inkling. ;) It’s Avex Entertainment’s project; Madhouse is doing the animation and Romi Paku, Fullmetal Alchemist’s Ed Elric, is playing a role.

Now, this may or may not turn out to be manga-related at all (in fact, I’m leaning towards not), but Dark Horse publishes manga (not to mention being local to me), so damnit, I’m going to report it.

Dark Horse has, according to AICN, established a contract with Universal to make seven films based on Dark Horse properties, starting with R.I.P.D. over the next three years. (Congrats, guys!)

I’m pretty sure that this deal doesn’t extend to Dark Horse’s licensed manga, whose movie rights would have to be acquired through their Japanese owners (unless DH’s contracts include those rights, which would be unusual, I should think). But I wonder: could it extend to Dark Horse’s upcoming and untitled original work from CLAMP?

Thinking about it, even that’s a stretch. I don’t know how the rights for the series are working but I bet CLAMP owns them in the end; I do know that the “mangettes” will be released simultaneously in Japan and the US, and that it will be serialized in a mangabon in Japan (but we don’t yet know which one). On the other hand, maybe they did negotiate some rights to help work a movie deal– it’s hard to imagine CLAMP wouldn’t be interested in seeing one of their series get turned into a mainstream Hollywood flick, assuming that they got a deal they liked.

That is all, of course, pure speculation on my part: the only thing we know for sure is that Universal is going to make seven films based on Dark Horse properties*, and that if Dark Horse manages to self-finance any films, they will have access to Universal’s resources. (Hey, that means they COULD be in a place to work up films based on licensed properties, if they can get the support of Japanese companies…)

…Right, I’ll stop fantasizing now. Sorry. ♥ I AM dropping an e-mail to their marketing coordinator to see if he can offer me any insight on the possibilities.

* At a further glance, I’m not entirely sure where AICN gets the number 7, since it’s not in the Variety article they cite, so make up your own minds on that.

So James Cameron has been babbling on about doing a movie based on Battle Angel Alita for forEVER. And apparently it’s actually still something on his to-do list! I stumbled upon this article on MarketSaw. Although I don’t fully know what the hubbub was about– apparently the script for a Battle Angel scene got leaked, and it featured an action scene that angered fans because it featured cars and bullets, both of which are illegal in the worldsetting of the original manga.

According to the source that provided the scene, it was from an old draft of someone else’s script that Cameron had to rework in a snap. Since then he has apparently reworked it further to match the manga, with the aforementioned action scene no longer a part of the film at all.

Another delicious little tidbit: at least one actress Cameron has on board, presumably the one who would play Alita, is also a big fan of the manga.

This is all, of course, 100% unconfirmed, but it’s still kinda fun to speculate, no? Who do you think she might be?

Fan of Hana Yori Dango? Maybe a few of creator Youko Kamio’s other works? How about the romantic drama Cat Street? Yes? Good news for you! It’s being developed into a live-action drama.

For those of you who have no clue what the series is, it’s about a 16-year-old girl named Keito Aoyama who used to be a child star. Aimless and goal-less, she finally finds herself enrolled in a school called El Liston, a school for students like her, who have no place where they belong. Along with her only remaining childhood friend and a group of new classmates, Keito has to learn how to grow up normal-style.

Sounds cute, if not terribly unique, so we’ll see how it goes.

TokyoGraph reports that a live-action adaptation of Yukari Ichijo’s 2003 josei manga Pride is being developed. The manga, which is ongoing, received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2007 and features two women who are working to become opera singers.

Japanese singer/songwriter Stephanie will add “/actress” to her resume with this film, in which she plays Shio Asami, a daughter of a priviledged family who goes to a prestigious music school. Actress Hikari Mitsushima– no stranger to manga adaptations; she played Light’s younger sister in the live-action Death Note movies –will play her rival, Moe Midorikawa, an impoverished singer who is struggling to pay for her own schooling.

The movie’s due out next year. As an opera fan myself, I think it sounds fun! ♥

According to Square Enix’s site for their seinen manga mag Young Magazine, Sakurako Gokurakuin’s manga Sekirei is being developed into an anime.

The plot involves a loser who gets special powers. No, really. I’m a little confused on exactly how it goes, but basically, the main character, Minato, turns out to be an “ashikabi,” someone who can master beings known as “seikirei,” a collection of 108 hot men and women who do battle per their ashikabi’s wishes.

Now, I have to say, I *am* kinda excited by this. Why? Because Sakurako Gokurakuin does the manga Category:Freaks (a DrMaster titles you may or may not have ever heard of), which is a yummy horror-ish series. (She also does yaoi manga under the name Ashika Sakura, including the extremely popular manga Sensitive Pornograph, which was made into the only really good yaoi porno anime I know of to date. Just sayin’.)

SO. It’s going to be very, very, pretty, because Gokurakuin’s art is fantastic. It doesn’t sound all that seinen to me, but whatever.

Via Moon Phase.

…Sorry, I love Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I couldn’t resist the title.

That said, Moon Phase has official confirmation that Yoshiki Tanaka’s novel series Titania is being developed into an anime.

Dr. Tanaka (yes, he has a doctorate) also wrote the Legend of Galactic Heroes and Arslan novels, among others. Heisei Democracy has translated the Japanese Wikipedia article for the series, which I’ll borrow:

Humanity’s advance has spread colonies through out the breadth of the vast universe, but the majority of them are under the control of the Titania family. In the year 446 of the star calendar, trouble arises surrounding one of the family’s special interests in the galactic city-state of Eulia. They send in a force to repress the uprising, but it is unexpectedly driven back.

Using this conflict as an opportunity, groups discontented with the Titania hegemony begin to move. Coupled with discord sown internally among the family members, an era of strife and terrible upheaval is ushered in for the galaxy.

This could be nifty. It’s been a while since there was a really good sci-fi anime, unless you count Haruhi.