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Tezuka Pro in Talks to Create Local Versions of Astro Boy Around the World
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Tezuka Productions revealed at France's Annecy animation festival that it is in talks with Channel TV, a network made up of eight Nigerian television channels, to remake the original Astro Boy television anime series. The studio is in talks to sell its content to Channel TV as well.
The entertainment trade news source Variety additionally reports that Tezuka Productions is also believed to be in talks with other companies as well, with a goal of creating local versions of Astro Boy around the world. Variety reports that Tezuka Productions itself may co-produce the remakes by providing the animation and other technical information.
Tezuka Productions general manager Yoshihiro Shimizu told Variety that Tezuka Productions' venture of branching out internationally in this way might receive monetary support from the Japanese government's "Cool Japan" cultural export initiative.
The first television anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom) manga about a young robot boy's adventures aired in Japan in 1963-66. The anime inspired two remakes in Japan in 1980 and 2003, and IMAGI remade the story as a CG-animated American film in 2009.
