According to Yahoo!JP, Haruo Mizuno’s Hitchcock-inspired suspense film series Siberian Express is going to be remade into an anime by Madhouse and Takashi Shimizu, of The Grudge fame.

The anime doesn’t appear to be related to the manga adaptation that Akita Shoten started running in the bi-monthly Susperia Mystery anthology in 2006, which is currently still running as Siberian Express FINAL…though I can’t find any tankoubon for it. Hmm. But the manga isn’t mentioned in the Yahoo! article, so I’m assuming the two are unrelated.

According to ICv2, the anime collection Batman: Gothic Knight, featuring works by Madhouse, Studio 4°C, and Production I.G, is going to premiere at Wizard World Chicago on June 28th. For anyone keeping count, that pretty well implies that it’s designed more for Batman fans than anime fans, but hey, maybe they’ll also show it at Anime Expo in L.A. the following weekend. (If not, I should think San Diego Comic Con is a gimme.)

By the way, the DVD will hit stores on July 8th, ten days before the sequel to The Dark Knight (the sequel to Batman Begins) appears in theaters.

Kidding– there’s no competition there. But Otakon has scored a very sweet deal: ANN reports that their opening ceremonies video will be animated by Madhouse. Daaang.

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.

Boy, it’s not very often I get to use Forbes as a source. Nonetheless, the biz pub reports that Disney, in an attempt to reach the Japanese market, is partnering with anime juggernaut Toei to create three new TV shows using Toei’s CG technology (Pixar’s isn’t good enough?).

Disney will also work with Madhouse (yeeha!) and Jinni’s Animation Studios, who have done CG work for Reideen and Idaten Jump, among other TV shows, movies, commercials, etc.

As a result of the movie, Toei– who, if you didn’t know, brought us Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Voltron, and Digimon, among others –saw its stocks rise 3.4%.

Perhaps Japan is realizing that a lot of its newer series are the same rehashed moe crap, because they’re returning to beloved and badass series like Slayers and Trigun.

Though since the Trigun movie has been blathered on about for years without actually going anywhere– I’m not going to hold my breath.

Still, the Moon Phase blog notes that the 14th volume of the Trigun Maximum manga features a dust jacket pronouncing the movie to be a Vash vs Wolfwood original story and announcing that it will come out in 2009.

…Still not holding my breath. NOT THIS TIME, MADHOUSE.

Rakuga Kidou reports that fans of Yusei Matsui’s manga Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro are so unhappy with the anime adaptation that they’ve started up a petition to try and pressure the producers at Madhouse into being more faithful to the original.

Now, I haven’t read the manga so I can’t address the faithfulness, but I hope that the producers pay attention and that it results in slightly less insipid mysteries. I love the characters and their interactions, I really like the visuals, but I can pretty much always tell who the bad guy is within five seconds of them appearing on screen (if not faster).

Original source: Rakuga Kidou.
Secondary source: AnimeNation.

Japan’s oldest movie studio, Nikkatsu, is reportedly joining forces with anime studio Madhouse to open a new office in L.A. in January, where the two companies will share resources to “make both live-action films from animation and animation from live-action films.”

The company hopes to produce 5-6 projects a year in conjunction with Hollywood studios, presumably for major theatrical release. Here’s hoping!

Hokay, let’s see…