Warner Brothers has snagged the rights to make a live-action version of Madhouse’s classic film Ninja Scroll.

Eh?

Oddly enough, I really don’t feel anything in particular about this. Hollywood has snagged live-action rights to so many anime lately (most of which have languished in Pre-Production Hell) that the news no longer makes me annoyed as it once did.

Normally I’m not too thrilled with live-action versions of anime (while Death Note wasn’t too bad, Tokyo Babylon 1999 was pretty wretched…still haven’t watched my live-action Dororo but I’ll get around to it soon). But I’m a huge fan of Mushishi, and I’m curious to see the live-action version (also, it’s directed by Katsuhiro Otomo!) and how it compares to the manga and anime. Luckily, our friends at Funimation have made it that much easier for me to see it!

Here!

Funimation did a fantastic job with releasing the anime, so I expect the live-action film will get a lot of attention from them as well. 2009 is going to be an interesting year!

Tonight at dinner, my husband said, “I have something to tell you. If you weren’t already sitting down, I would tell you to sit down.”

He didn’t look unhappy, so I ate my pasta and waited.

As it turns out, Hollywood has been working on a live-action G.I. Joe movie, set to be released in 2009.

Now, I’m a girl, so G.I. Joe wasn’t at the top of my Saturday morning must-view list, but I always thought the Baroness was kind of hot. I’m not particularly surprised by the news; Hollywood has been busy exploiting my childhood for several years now. Anyway, after dinner I checked online to get the low-down, and found that Access Hollywood has some advance pics from the movie.

http://www.accesshollywood.com/gallery/1338/gi-joe/?__source=omg

Not bad, not bad at all. Cold go either way of course, but it’ll be worth my time just to hear the husband gush about it with his friends on the phone. I’ll definitely be seeing it, even if G.I. Joe wasn’t really my thing- make a live-action My Little Pony movie, Hollywood, and then we’ll talk.

Dark. Creepy. Disturbing. Probably not adjectives that would come to mind when you think of Osamu Tezuka. But the ‘Godfather of Manga’ penned some surprisingly dark stories, including Dororo and MW. MW is the creepy tale of a young man left without a conscience after surviving a leakage of deadly nerve gas (the ‘MW’ of the title). He kidnaps a kid, promises to release the kid for a ransom, kills the kid, kills the kid’s Dad when he brings the ransom, and has sex with a priest. And that’s just the first chapter.

Being the bloodthirsty bitch that I am, MW is one of my favorite manga. So imagine my delight when I discovered there is a live-action movie in the works!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-06-02/tezuka-mw-adapted-for-live-action-film-for-2009

Hopefully the film won’t cut out the tortured relationship between golden boy/serial killer Yuki and Father Garai; Garai’s constant agonizing over their sexual relationship is a powerful aspect of the story. But hey, it’s Japan- they love that stuff over there, right?