News
Tom Cruise to Star in Film of Yukikaze Sci-Fi Novels
posted on by Egan Loo
The entertainment news source Deadline reported on Monday that actor Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Mission Impossible, The Last Samurai) is attached to the film adaptation of Chōhei Kambayashi's Yukikaze science-fiction novels. The novels already inspired a 2002-2005 video anime series from the studio Gonzo.
In Kambayashi's story, the elite Special Air Force wages a secret war against aliens that unsuccessfully invaded Earth through a dimensional portal over Antarctica 33 years ago. Second Lieutenant Rei Fukai flies lonely yet danger-fraught reconnaissance missions over the aliens' home Planet With his wingmate, the sentient Sylphid fighter.
Warner Bros. acquired the rights to adapt the story, and it will also finance and distribute the project. 3 Arts' Erwin Stoff and Tom Lassally (All You Need Is Kill) are producing the film.
Kambayashi wrote two Yukikaze novels: 1984's original Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze novel and 1999's Good Luck Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze. Kanbayashi revised part of his original novel to flow better with its followup, and Hayakawa Publishing released the revised version under the name Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze Kai in 2002. The attendees of the Japan Science Fiction Convention gave Seiun Awards to both novels.
Viz Media publishes the original story in North America. Bandai Entertainment released the anime on DVD in North America from 2004 to 2006, and the related Honneamise label released the entire series on Blu-ray Disc in 2008.
Cruise has been shooting a film adaptation of another science-fiction text novel published by Viz Media, Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need Is Kill, with director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Cruise's latest science-fiction film, Oblivion, opened with US$61 million overseas this past weekend.
Update: Hayakawa published a third novel, Unbroken Arrow: Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze, in 2009. Thanks, Panon
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