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Ernesto Foronda Working on Film Adaptation of Dororo Manga
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Indiewire film news website posted an interview with director and producer Ernesto Foronda on Monday, in which Foronda told Indiewire, "I'm working on ... an adaptation of legendary manga artist Osamu Tezuka's Dororo." Foronda did not specifically say if the film would be live-action.
Foronda directed and wrote the upcoming film Sunset Stories, and has worked as a music consultant for Fast & Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He also wrote and produced the 2002 film Better Luck Tomorrow.
Osamu Tezuka's Dororo adventure story follows Hyakkimaru, a rōnin samurai who lost 48 body parts to his father's pact with demons, after he is abandoned as an infant and raised by a doctor who restored his body with prosthetics. A vagabond boy thief named Dororo joins Hyakkimaru as they journey to find the demons and restore Hyakkimaru's body. The manga has inspired two 1969 anime series, a 2007 live-action movie, and two games; the 2004 PlayStation 2 version was released in English as Blood Will Tell.
Vertical licensed the three-volume series and release it in 2008. Vertical also released a one-volume omnibus edition of the series last month. The manga won the Will Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan in 2009.
Akihiko Shiota directed the 2007 live-action adaptation of Dororo, which starred Kou Shibasaki (Battle Royale's Mitsuko Sōma) and Satoshi Tsumabuki (Dragon Head's Teru Aoki). Universal Studios Home Video released the film on DVD in North America in September 2008.
