"Mighty Boy", a Spanish Action Short Movie Based on a Manga by Naoki Urasawa, Starts Its Crowdfunding Campaign

/ Madrid, Tuesday October 30th, 2012 /

The action short movie "Mighty Boy", based in a manga by famous artist Naoki Urasawa, has been greenlighted to move on to its next level: become a crowdfunding initiative at the Indiegogo platform.

http://www.indiegogo.com/mightyboy?a=1369737

Through this campaign, producers Espiral Producciones will try to gather the last batch of funds they need to make the project a reality.

Naoki Urasawa in person approved the screenplay and the crowdfunding message you can see in the video.

We're talking about an fully official adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's manga Mighty Boy, published by Japanese giant Shogakukan, who kindly agreed to license the original story.

As you surely now, Naoki Urasawa is one of the most famous and successful contemporary manga creators, with best sellers such as 20th Century Boys, Pluto, Billy Bat, Monster and Yawara! just to mention a few.

Our short movie is based on a short story Urasawa penned during the early part of his career, which is currently part of a short story compilation. It is an exciting story about a college student working as extra in a sentai TV series (more known as Power Rangers in the West), so he can finance his education. The main character starts to realize the potential of the series he works at to send a positive message to kids and youngs. There will be a point where being a part of the series will spark a conflict with his girlfriend, with his education and with the ultimate goal of his life...

At the helm of this project is Javier Yáñez, a Spanish movie maker and director of fantasy genre short movies where visual FX are a key aspect. He's won awards in multiple times for his fantasy short movies "A través del ocaso" (http://www.atravesdelocaso.es) and "Amor Sacro" (http://www.amorsacro.es).
This short movie will feature, amongs some known faces, actor Adam Jiezerski in the starring role (http://www.imdb.es/name/nm1499472/).

The production of this short movie is backed by expert partners in all areas. The staff handling the action and fights come from the Specialists School Ángel Plana (http://www.escuelaespecialistas.com/), leader in Spain. Linguistic and international promotion support is provided by Nagareboshi (http://www.nagareboshi.es/), known for the Spanish version of Adventure Time and for their work localizing videogames into multiple languages.

The crowdfunding initiative will go on for about 45 days.

If you want to own and support a Spanish short movie made in the style of Japanese sentai/Power Ranger movies, made with love and respect for the genre and full of action, humor and fun, don't hesitate and support us.

All perks include a download of the movie and they are as cheap as 10 USD / 8 Euro. Click the link to see them all and hopefully choose one!

Thanks a bunch for all your support and stay tuned for all news we'll offer during the next weeks about this initiative!

HOW DOES THIS STORY BEGINS?

One day I read the story of a dreamer, a youngster who believed in human values, in the need of doing what's right and helping society improve. He was passionate about Power Rangers and sentai series, a kid who really trusted his power to make the world a better place. I was enthralled.

It was a Naoki Urasawa comic entitled Mighty Boy, one of his short stories he penned during his youth, before his worldwide hits Monster and 20th Century Boys.

That day I envisioned doing this story. It was one of those waking dreams where you go in so deep you can feel the emotions, touch them and even remember them as if you had lived them in your flesh.

Ten years later I met the people of Espiral Producciones and we had the crazy idea of sending Naoki Urasawa an email explaining this very same story, explaining how we wanted to execute this project, showing the team that had been assembled behind it but importantly, showing how it would be a dream come true for us to be able to do this project.

Urasawa-sensei gave us the rights to adapt into a script to go ahead with the project, also giving us all the support of his publisher, Shogakukan, Inc.

"Mighty Boy" will be translated into English, Japanese and French thanks to specialist localization company Nagareboshi, known for their Spanish adaptation of Adventure Time among others.

WHO IS PART OF THIS STORY?

ADAM JEZIERSKI
He's the starring actor. He jumped into fame interpreting Gorka in Spanish TV series Física o Química. He's also worked in movies such as Gordos (2009) by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo and then Tensión Sexual no Resuelta (2010). In 2011 he took part in the movies Cruzando al Límite, Animales Domésticos and Verbo. He's now working in Antena 3 TV comedy Con el culo al aire giving life to Javi, the son of the churro maker.

JAVIER YÁÑEZ
He's the director and precursor of the project. He's a post-producer and short movie maker. His recent works include "A través del Ocaso", selected in more than 20 festivals, which has won special effects and post-production awards in the Horrorfest of South Africa, and best Spanish short movie in Malaga Fantastic Festival. Another of his newest movies is "Amor Sacro", which won the award of the audience as best short movie in the Shots festival, the best short in the festival "El Milagro" and besti director in "Pilas en corto" cinema festival.

Screenwriter: Miguel Morán
Assistant Directors: David Casas and Jezabel Ruiz
Producers: Gustavo Jaén and Jorge Yáñez
Photography Director: Francisco Morales
Costume Design: Yolanda Benedito and Viviana Fernandez
Design and Illustration: Patricia Ponce
Music: Damián Sánchez
Combat Choreography: Escuela de Especialistas de Cine Ángel Plana
...and many more!!
Collaborating in the diffusion of the project are: Japan Foundation, Ramen para dos, Japan Weekend Madrid 2.0, Akira Comics, Elektra.
Collaborating companies: PlanetaDeAgostini,Norma Editorial, Dolmen Editorial, Scifiworld and Nagareboshi

WHAT IS MIGHTY BOY ABOUT...?

"Mighty Boy" is a story about love, life and its expectations, about effort, self esteem and mostly about the rocky way to maturing (or not) as a person.

"Mighty Boy" is an emotional but amusing story, kind but powerful, classic but different.

Our target is to tell the story with a comedy twist, adding the visuals we expect in a Japanese Super Sentai series, and having as reference great superhero movies such as Kick Ass or Scott Pilgrim Against the World.

WHY DO WE NEED YOUR HELP?

We want "Mighty Boy" to be a short movie with a tremendous quality and pay tribute to Urasawa-sensei, the great master of Japanese manga. We also want to be a beacon for others who want to adapt stories from other worlds into Spanish cinema.

We're in the process of gathering finance and we are only 10,000 USD short in order to reach our target. Espiral Producciones, S.A. will support with another chunk of the financing and private contributions of some team members will complete the total amount.

If we reach our economic target, shooting will happen during November 2012 and make "Mighty Boy" a wonderful reality.

We would like to thank the involvement of companies such as Planeta DeAgostini or Dolmen Editorial, who have offered related products we'll be able to offer as rewards in the crowdfunding initiative, and Nagareboshi, which offers its professional localization services and international promotion so our movie can reach the whole world perfectly adapted into widespread languages such as English, French and Japanese.

If you're a fan of the author as we are, if you like "Mighty Boy", if you like our short movie and want to be a part of this project, become our sponsor!