Live-Action Astro Boy Film Heads to New Line, Acquires Writers

The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog reported on Wednesday that Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line Cinema is in talks to acquire Animal Logic Entertainment and Tezuka Productions' planned live-action film based on Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.​

In addition, New Line has tapped San Andreas writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore to write the film's script.​

Animal Logic's Jason Lust and Ranger7 Films' Mike Callaghan and Reuben Liber are serving as executive producers.

Animal Logic is aiming to make the film for all audiences, not just children, like blockbuster comic book movies. The producers are also planning to use many of the supporting characters and villains from the original series.​

An animated French, Monacan, and Japanese Astro Boy reboot is also in the works. Hong Kong animation studio IMAGI produced the computer-animated film version of Astro Boy with distributor Summit Entertainment in 2009. A joint production between Tezuka Productions and Nigerian television station Chanel TV created a television animation project last year. In Japan, the manga inspired the country's first full-fledged half-hour television anime series in 1963, followed by a color television series in 1980 and a remake in 2003.​