FUNimation Adds Three Series

FUNimation Adds Three Series
'Gankutsuou,' 'Slayers,' 'Gungrave'

FUNimation has announced three anime properties for which it has obtained licenses, one new and two previously released in the U.S. Slayers Revolution is a 26-eposide series following the three previous Slayers series (Slayers, Slayers Next and Slayers Try); FUNimation will release the complete series on DVD.

FUNimation acquired the rights to the 24-episode Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo series from GDH. The series was previously distributed in the U.S. by Geneon.

And FUNimation will distribute the 26-episode series Gungrave for Geneon, in addition to previously announced Geneon titles Ergo Proxy, Hellsing Ultimate, and Black Lagoon.

Keanu Reeves Wants to Play Spike Spiegel in CBB live Action Movie

Keanu Reeves recently talked about the progress that producer Erwin Stoff, who has worked exclusively with Reeves for the past two decades, has made on a live action remake of Shinichiro Watanabe anime Cowboy Bebop in an interview with MTV. Reeves told MTV that he was eager to play the futuristic space cowboy Spike Spiegel.

"We've got the rights, we've got a writer, and he's putting together a scene outline," Reeves told MTV about the Cowboy Bebop project, which is set up at Fox. Reeves explained to MTV why he loved Cowboy Bebop"t's got a Western quality, a Western/film noir aspect to it. It's got so much style to it, and that's part of its appeal-that kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect."

According to Reeves the live action film will focus on the origins of the Bebop team of bounty hunters and will incorporate the conclusion to the 26-episode anime and at least some of the episodic adventures explored in the series.

Gundam 00 Premieres on the Sci Fi Channel Tonight

1st 2 episodes of re-imagining of robot war anime to run at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT

The Sci Fi television network in the United States will premiere Bandai Entertainment's English dubbing of the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 anime series with two episodes tonight at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT. The series provides a new interpretation of the Gundam robot war mythology that is set in our own real-world history.

In this wartorn future, mankind has splintered into three major factions over energy resources. However, a group known as the Celestial Being aims to eradicate war with four giant robotic mecha known as Gundams and their Gundam Meister pilots.

Fullmetal Alchemist's Seiji Mizushima directed this series with scripts supervised by Honey and Clover's Yousuke Kuroda. Loveless and Earthian manga creator Yun Kouga designed the original characters, which Basilisk's Michinori Chiba adapted for animation.

Gundam 00 to Premiere November 24th on Sci Fi Channel's Ani-Monday

November 11, 2008 (Cypress, CA) – Bandai Entertainment Inc. announced today that it has licensed the television rights to the series “Mobile Suit Gundam 00” to Starz Media. The series will have its U.S. premiere on the Sci Fi Channel November 24th at 11 p.m. on SCI FI's “Ani- Monday” programming block. Two episodes will air that night and each week throughout the fall and spring of 2009.

“Mobile Suit Gundam 00” is the latest installment in the long running franchise and takes place in the year 2307 A.D. When fossil fuels have been completely depleted and humanity has turned to solar energy to maintain its way of life, the controlling nations of the solar power find themselves at war with more impoverished countries. These sun-deprived countries threaten the “promised land of God,” which leads to the formation of a group called the Celestial Being, whose purpose is to end war and unite humanity through the use of four Gundam mech.

The series is directed by Seiji Mizushima whose past credits as a director and storyboard artist include Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, and Appleseed: Ex Machina.

Following its U.S. broadcast it will be released on DVD in 2009 by Bandai Entertainment Inc.

Geneon to Merge with Universal Pictures Japan

The advertising and marketing company Dentsu has announced on Wednesday that it will transfer the majority ownership in its Geneon Entertainment home video subsidiary to NBC Universal's Universal Pictures International Entertainmnent (UPIE). UPIE has agreed to merge Geneon Entertainment with its own Universal Pictures Japan (UPJ), which handles operations in the country.

The transfer agreement was signed on November 7, and the actual transfer is scheduled to take place at the end of the month. The merger of UPJ and Geneon will take place in February of next year, and the resulting company will assume a new name. UPIE will own 80.1% of the new company, while Dentsu will retain 19.9%.

Currently, Geneon Entertainment has 3.6 billion yen (about US$37 million) in capital, which is 100% owned by Dentsu. Geneon Entertainment President and CEO Sumio Kiga oversaw 178 employees as of the end of October. Pioneer had originally established the company in March 1981 to produce videos in the Laserdisc format.

Dentsu acquired the majority of the outstanding shares in Pioneer Entertainment and renamed the company as Geneon Entertainment in 2003. Geneon has already been distributing Universal Pictures' DVDs in Japan since March of this year.

Captain America Gets a Director

Marvel Studios has chosen Joe Johnston to direct First Avenger: Captain America. Johnston, who storyboarded the convoy action sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark and directed Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo, and the new remake of The Wolfman, began talking with Marvel about Captain America nearly two years ago and, according to The Reporter “much of the project’s current directions resulted from those early conversations.”

First Avenger: Captain America will be set during World War II and will likely include an origin saga. Cap will also be appearing in Marvel Studios’ Avengers, which will be set in the present.

Marvel Studios expects to hire writers for the Captain America film in the very near future. The film is currently slated to debut on May 6th, 2011.

Brett Ratner Helming Conan?

According to The Hollywood Reporter director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men 3: The Last Stand) “is in final negotiations to take on literature’s most famous barbarian.” Be prepared for a massive collective wail from certain quarters of fandom that don’t see Ratner as anything more than a mediocre director of campy cop capers. Speaking of which, it is likely that Ratner will helm Beverly Hills Cop IV (penned by Wanted scribes Michael Brandt and Derek Haas) for Paramount before commencing his work on the new Conan movie—both films are tentatively slated to be released in 2010.

Co-produced by Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate, and written by Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly, the new Conan film is an origin saga for the mesomorphic mutilator that hews closely to the spirit of the original Robert E. Howard stories (see “Conan Movie on the Fast Track”). According to The Reporter, the new Conan film will be R-rated (like the original John Milius 1982 Conan the Barbarian, and not PG-13 like the franchise-snuffing Conan the Destroyer from 1984) and have a budget of $85 million (down from earlier estimates of $100 million).