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Variety: Live-Action Mardock Scramble Film Rights Licensed
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The entertainment trade magazine Variety reported on Wednesday that Japanese advertising agency Dentsu and Hayakawa Publishing have entered into a film rights agreement for a live-action adaptation of Tow Ubukata's Mardock Scramble science fiction novels. Writer and director Michael Davis (Shoot 'Em Up, Monster Man) has agreed to direct and produce the adaptation, according to Variety.
In the original story, a teenage prostitute named Rune Balot is murdered in an explosion. However, Dr. Easter saves her, and Balot is resurrected as an advanced cyborg. Balot takes on the worst of Mardock City's criminals as she looks for vengeance.
Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint released Ubukata's original Mardock Scramble novel series last year. Sentai Filmworks is releasing the Mardock Scramble anime film trilogy in North America on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Ubukata and Yoshitoki Ōima's Mardock Scramble manga concluded in Japan earlier this month, and Kodansha Comics is releasing the series in North America.
Variety also reported that producer Don Murphy (live-action Transformers film trilogy) is planning to develop a live-action film adaptation of Issui Ogawa's science-fiction novel Tokisuna no Ou (The Lord of the Sands of Time) through Dentsu and Hayakawa Publishing's deal. Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint published the novel in North America in 2009. The story follows a time traveler who attempts to reunite humanity before its impending destruction by aliens.
[Via Nippon Cinema]
