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Japan's Digital Frontier Co-Produces France's Windwalkers Film
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Japanese visual effects company Digital Frontier is co-producing the animated film Windwalkers: Chronicles of the 34th Horde with French studios Shibuya Productions and Forge Animation. The film will adapt the 2004 French fantasy novel La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio.
The Dutch-born French film director and producer Jan Kounen (Dobermann, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky) is helming the full-CG and stereoscopic 3D project as his first animated film. Magalie Helle is writing the script, while Marc Caro (Dante 01, Delicatessen) is serving as art director. The animation and video game consulting agency Shibuya International, Shibuya Productions' parent company, is also overseeing the project with Digital Frontier.
The story takes place in a world overwhelmed by the winds. An elite 23-member team named the 34th Horde travels to the Upper Reaches where the winds originate.
Damasio's original novel won the French novel category in France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire speculative fiction awards in 2006. The book became a bestseller in France, and an Italian-language version has also been released.
Digital Frontier adapted the Tekken fighting game franchise into the 3D film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, which premiered in July 2011. The company created opening movie footage in the Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 games as well as the Appleseed and Resident Evil: Degeneration films. Digital Frontier's other projects have included the Summer Wars anime film as well as the Gantz and Death Note live-action films.
Sources: Anime!Anime!, Variety
