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Imagi's CG Astro Boy Film to Open on October 23, 2009
posted on by Egan Loo
The film distributor Summit Entertainment and the Hong Kong animation studio IMAGI have announced that their computer-animated film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga will open on over 3,000 North American screen on October 23, 2009. The story centers on a robot abandoned by its inventor and raised by a kind professor to protect the world. David Bowers (Flushed Away) is directing off a screenplay written by Timothy Harris (Trading Places, Kindergarten Cop). The cast features Freddie Highmore in the title role, Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, and Kristen Bell.
The two production companies will later announce a marketing "commitment from a major fast food restaurant partner as well as alliances in the areas of toys, games, books and others." Dark Horse reissued its English version of the original manga this month, and Right Stuf have released the classic 1963-1966 anime adaptation in two box sets. Manga Entertainment and Sony shipped DVDs for the 1980 and the 2003 anime remakes, respectively. Next February, Viz Media will publish Naoki Urasawa's Pluto manga that is set in Tezuka's Astro Boy world.
