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Hollywood's Lone Wolf and Cub No Longer in Development (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, The Fountain, The Wrestler) has told MTV's Splash Page that he remains interested in doing a film adaptation of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub manga, but the project is no longer in active development. According to Aronofsky, "The rights from Japan were never cleared. They tried for a while. I don't think it's getting out of there anytime soon." Nevertheless, he called it "one of [Japan's] great pieces of literature."
The Variety entertainment trade magazine reported in 2003 that Aronofsky and and his Protozoa producer Eric Watson were attached to a proposed Lone Wolf and Cub project with Paramount and the Mutual Film Company. In 2007, Koike launched Kazuo Koike Gekiga Sonjuku Co., Ltd., a company to educate manga creators about copyright issues and their intellectual property rights. Dark Horse releases the original manga in North America, while Media Blasters licensed a Japanese live-action television series based on it. Previously, AnimEigo licensed a Japanese 1972 live-action film version and its two sequels.
Update: AnimEigo carries the Japanese 1972 live-action film version and all five of its sequels. Thanks, doc-watson42.
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