The pilot film for the unrealized live-action film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Domu manga will play at the Niigata International Animation Film Festival. The festival will take place from March 17 to March 22 with a retrospective section on Otomo. Otomo (Akira, Memories) personally directed the live-action pilot film.
Otomo launched the Domu manga in 1980. Dark Horse Manga published it in English. The manga won the Excellence Award at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 1981 and won the Best Comic award at 1984 Seiun Awards. It became the first manga to win the Nihon SF Taisho Award in 1983.
Touchstone Pictures with Guillermo del Toro previously possessed the rights for a live-action film adaptation of the manga.
Otomo initially became known for works such as Kibun wa mō Sensō and his most famous title internationally, Akira. He then branched into animation by directing part of the Robot Carnival omnibus and a feature film adaptation of his own Akira story. He directed other anime projects such as the Memories omnibus, the Gundam: Mission to the Rise event short, and the Steamboy feature. He also collaborated on Harmagedon, Roujin Z, Spriggan, Metropolis, Freedom Project and Hipira: The Little Vampire. Otomo confirmed in 2018 that he is working on a new manga. He had revealed in 2012 that he was preparing his first long series since Akira. He is directing his third animated feature film Orbital Rise.
Update: The pilot film’s screening is the Japanese premiere, but it also played at the Angouleme 2016 festival in France. Thanks, Catsuka.
Source: Comic Natalie
