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The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gets Live-Action Screen Adaptation

The official website for The Legend of the Galactic Heroes franchise revealed on Wednesday that Yoshiki Tanaka's epic science fiction novels are inspiring an unspecified "screen adaptation." The screen adaptation will be a trilogy, and the first part is slated to debut in 2020.

Chinese film production company Jiaxuan Global Pictures (Wolf Totem, Bait 3D, love for life) is producing the adaptation. Tanaka (seen left in image above) said that he had originally thought a live-action screen adaptation of his novels was impossible, but he is looking forward to the adaptation.

Production I.G is also producing a new anime adaptation of the novels. The first season, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Kaikō (The New Thesis: Star-Crossed), will premiere next April as a 12-episode television series. The event screenings of the second "season," The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Seiran (The New Thesis: Stellar War), will then play in theaters, as three films of four episodes each, in 2019.

Tanaka's space opera novel series follows the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and Free Planets Alliance, as well as the personal stories of Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the Alliance's Yang Wen-Li. The 10 main novel volumes and four side-story volumes in The Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga have sold 15 million copies and earned Tanaka a Seiun Award. Besides Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Tanaka also wrote the original novel inspirations for The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Ryoko's Case File, Sohryuden - Legend of the Dragon Kings, and Tytania anime projects.

Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint has licensed the original novel series and released the fourth novel in June. It will release the fifth volume in November.

The late director Noboru Ishiguro (Macross, Orguss, Megazone 23) and his Artland anime studio spent more than a decade adapting the novels into a theatrical and video anime franchise, with over 100 installments, from 1988 to 2000. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the video anime series for home video.