NEWS! MOVIE NEWS!
(from
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-film.ht..../04/09.30.film)
Tartakovsky Helms Astroboy
Sony Pictures Entertainment has struck a deal with animator Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) to write and direct its long-in-development film version of the classic Japanese animated series Astroboy, Variety reported. Don Murphy of Angryfilms is producing, with Lisa Henson and Kristine Belson of Jim Henson Pictures, for Sony's Columbia Pictures, the trade paper reported.
The project was purchased by the studio in 1997 and slated as a live-action movie. Todd Alcott wrote a script and all systems were go, but the movie hit a snag in 2000, when Steven Spielberg began the similarly themed A.I. Artificial Intelligence, also about a robot boy who replaces a dead child.
Astroboy is a futuristic Pinocchio story about a scientist who builds a robot replacement for his dead son, but then turns him out in the world when it becomes clear he's not human, the trade paper reported.
Insiders told the trade paper that the movie will blend animation, animatronics and live action. Osamu Tezuka, often called the Walt Disney of Japan, created Astroboy.
Probably, Astro might be the ONLY character animated. And probably some stupid Japanese actors might be the live action characters. Some of the robots might be animatronic.