It was around this time last year that we heard about a live-action version of Astro Boy, and it looks like it’s now heading into further development at New Line Cinema.
New Line, a division of Warner Bros., are heavy into negotiations with Animal Logic Entertainment and Tezuka Productions and have brought in Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore (San Andreas) to pen the script.
Created as a manga in the 1950s by Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy has been adapted into several anime series, and also made the jump to the big screen with an animated movie in 2009, which featured Freddie Highmore as the voice of the title character. “We’ve seen him as a manga, an anime and an animated movie but we’ve never seen him as a live-action movie or him as a superhero,” said producer Zareh Nalbandian. “We actually see him in the same league as an Iron Man.”
Astro Boy did hit cinemas in an animated feature in 2009, but this will be the first time he’s appeared in live-action form on the big screen.
Source: THR
Originally published February 18, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
