News
Chocolate Underground, Tezuka's MW Film Trailers Posted
posted on by Egan Loo
The official Japanese website for the anime version of Alex Shearer's Bootleg novel is now streaming a trailer for the theatrical film. The anime film will open in Japan on January 31 under the satirical novel's Japanese name, Chocolate Underground. Like the novel, film and the earlier net-streamed version follow two English boys who create a bootleg chocolate factory after their country bans chocolate. The theatrical version will add 20 minutes of new footage and present the entire project in widescreen format. Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE The Movie: Princess of the Birdcage Kingdom) and Trance Arts (The Prince of Tennis) had already premiered their anime version on Japanese mobile phones on Valentine's Day this year. Takayuki Hamana (The Prince of Tennis, Library War) has been directing the project.
The official website for the live-action film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's MW suspense manga posted a teaser trailer on December 26. (After the linked site finishes loading, select the "Enter" button and then select the third black text link from the left.) Director Hitoshi Iwamoto is overseeing the project with a script by Tetsuya Ōishi and Haruo Kimura (live-action Death Note films). In Tezuka's surprisingly dark story, Michio Yūki (live-action Nodame Cantabile's Hiroshi Tamaki) survived a deadly nerve gas tragedy as a child, but this "MW" incident left his damaged brain without a conscience. Yūki grows up to become a handsome bank executive by day, and a mass murderer by night. On top of that, Yūki aims to acquire the MW nerve gas, which leaves his longtime confidante, a priest named Garai (Densha Otoko film's Takayuki Yamada), struggling with the right decision. Vertical publishes MW in the United States, where the manga was nominated this year for an Eisner Award in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan category.
Source: Nippon Cinema for Chocolate Underground, Twitch for MW
Image © 2009 Chocolate Underground Production Committee
