Osamu Tezuka’s beloved anime character Astro Boy looks set for a new lease of life at New Line.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has appointed San Andreas scribes Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore to pen a treatment for a new live-action feature based on the popular manga series. Negotiations are still underway for Warner to acquire the IP rights, but if they do so, the deal would see Animal Logic Entertainment, Ranger 7 Films and Japanese firm Tezuka Productions produce an eventual feature film.
News of a live-action Astro Boy movie taking flight first surfaced more than a year ago, when those involved were still on the hunt for writers to steer the iconic 50s manga to the big screen. With Fabrizio and Passmore now on board, THR notes that New Line is pitching the project as a four-quadrant adventure movie, essentially denoting that Astro Boy‘s revival will be aimed at all audiences over and under 25.
As such, expect New Line’s modern retelling to align more with the original comic book than Imagi Animation’s picture from 2009, which featured Freddie Highmore in the title role.
First hatched by Tezuka in the 1950s, Astro Boy became a permanent fixture of Japan’s animated scene throughout the 70s and 80s, telling the tale of a robotic boy imbued with superpowers. Like a stylized twist on Pinocchio, the heroic creation ends up in the hands of a new owner, who lends the artificial boy with the impetus to fight crime.
We’ll keep you posted on the development of New Line’s live-action feature as more information comes to light.