Appleseed Manga Gets New CG-Animated Film by Shinji Aramaki

The IGN website reported on Tuesday that Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and the Japanese studio Lucent Pictures Entertainment are producing Appleseed Alpha, a new CG-animated film of Masamune Shirow's science-fiction manga Appleseed, this summer. Shinji Aramaki (Starship Troopers: Invasion, Space Pirate Captain Harlock) is returning to direct this new project after helming two previous CG Appleseed films. Joseph Chou (Appleseed: Ex Machina, Halo Legends) is producing.

The new film will be "a reboot that will depict the early days of Deunan and Briareos in search of the legendary city of Olympus." IGN posted the first image from the film.

The original manga follows Deunan Knute and her bioroid partner Brialeos in the futuristic city of Utopia, where human terrorists are battling government's ESWAT forces. Dark Horse Comics publishes the manga in North America. The manga inspired Kazuyoshi Katayama's original anime video project, Aramaki's two previous CG films, Takayuki Hamana's Appleseed XIII CG anime series and a cancelled Appleseed: Genesis CG television anime series.

The Japanese government reported last year that Lucent Pictures (Berserk: The Golden Age Arc trilogy) received 50,000,000 yen (about US$500,000) from a fund to support international film productions — specifically, for a "Project Alpha," a tentatively titled joint-Japan/U.S. animated work. Lucent Pictures filed a trademark on Appleseed Alpha in November.