Live-action Attack on Titan film director Shinji Higuchi confirmed on Wednesday that the project will span two films. Both are slated to open next summer. The movies are currently filming across Japan including on Hashima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture.
Higuchi stated that, with the supervision of Attack on Titan Hajime Isayama, the story will be based on the world and characters of the manga, while incorporating new characters and new formidable enemies. Yuusuke Watanabe (Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, live-action Gantz,Gantz II: Perfect Answer, 20th Century Boys, Gatchaman) is writing the script. Film critic Tomohiro Machiyama, who is also friends with Isayama, is working on the scripts together with Isayama and Watanabe.
Isayama’s manga depicts the battles between humans and the giants who now rule the world outside humans’ walled enclaves.
23-year-old actor Haruma Miura is starring in the films. Joining the cast is Hiroki Hasegawa, Kiko Mizuhara, Kanata Hongou, Takahiro Miura, Nanami Sakuraba, Satoru Matsuo, Satomi Ishihara, Taki Pierre, Jun Kunimura, Shū Watanabe, Ayame Misaki, and Rina Takeda.
Hajime Isayama’s original Attack on Titan manga has inspired four spinoff manga, and a 25-episode television anime version aired last year. Isayama launched the series in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009, and the manga now has 40 million copies in print.
Kodansha Comics is publishing Isayama’s original manga in North America. The company is also releasing three of the four spinoff manga, and the Attack on Titan Guidebooks: INSIDE & OUTSIDE. Vertical is publishing the Attack on Titan: Before the Fall light novel series.
Both Funimation and Crunchyroll streamed the anime version of the manga as it aired in Japan, and Funimation released the first part of the series on home video this year.
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Want more Attack on Titan? Make sure you’re in Japan winter 2014!