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John Woo On Appleseed Sequel Film & TV Series Codenamed POSEIDON PROJECT Date: 5/5/2005 |
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Pictured right (click to enlarge) is a gem we uncovered buried in the 50+ pounds (no joking) of loot we brought back from the Tokyo Anime Fair. One of the major sleeper announcements out of there this year came in the form of a simple glossy black one-sheet tucked away into the promotional porfolio of the company MICOTT & BASARA INC. The flyer is entirely in English and reads: Produced By John Woo POSEIDON Project Based on APPLESEED/Masamune Shirow Director Shinji Aramaki Movie & TV Series 26 Episodes Executive Producer Yasuhiko Kinoshita & Sumiji Miyake Producers Hidenori Ueki & Naoko Watanabe Based on APPLESEED SEISHINSHA Production DIGITAL FRONTIER Below this 3 company logos are pictured: MICOTT & BASARA INC. - LION ROCK PRODUCTIONS - AXIS ENTERTAINMENT The story behind the flyer goes a bit deeper as ANS learned from Micott And Basara. On March 31st the company finalized the partnership and held a press conference at the Ariake Washington Hotel in Tokyo. that will represent a truly global effort to develop this new work on several scales including image contents production and distribution. Computer-generated animation etc. for the project will come via cooperation with Lion Rock Productions headquartered in Hong Kong (represented by Terence Chang and John Woo) and Axis Entertainment headquartered in the United States in California represented by Joseph Chou. Newcomer Axis Entertainment will handle the distribution of the works in North America while mediating various ideas, concepts, staff, and the contents donors in the worldwide market. John Woo has brought the world films which have gone on to make the director a cult icon, they include: "A Better Tomorrow", "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2", and "Faceoff". Mr. Miyake explained at the press event that they are aiming for a different CG feel than the works see out of companies like Pixar and DreamWorks and that they wanted to tackle a project whose contents were able to be developed with foreign countries globally. Miyake-san met Mr. Joseph Chou who was still at Warner who evaluated the idea highly. Joseph put Miyake in contact with Mr. Terence Chang and Director John Woo whose further high appraisal was gotten similarly. The target figure of initial DVD sales is 300,000 units in North America with the possibility of reaching a 500,000 unit benchmark. The work is being produced with global market aim however. Director John Woo mentioned: "I was very surprised to see 'Apple Seed' this time." His first impression was not that of viewing an animated cartoon movie but a usual movie. He added that it is very adequate as the camera work and design along with the story is also moving. The combination such as these artworks and CG was a new one for him. Moreover, the action was very near live action film. Woo said he respects supervisor Aramaki, and he thinks that it is worth respect very much to have produced this movie with combinations including the image, CG, and music. John Woo's supervision can be seen in the action scene choreography, clothes, and the story composition as well as production. Opening of the film to the public is scheduled for the summer of 2006. |
| Source: Anime News Service |
