More “Tiger & Bunny” live action film details announced

Global Road Entertainment announced in Berlin today that it plans to spend around $1 billion on production over the next three years, with their partnership with Bandai Namco Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Weed Road Pictures.

Details announced include the following names attached to the live action film.

The original writer will be Ellen Shanman, the film will be produced by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Erica Huggins, Bandai Namco Pictures’ Masayayuki Ozaki and Weed Road Pictures’ Akiva Goldmsan.

What is “Tiger & Bunny”?

In 2011, the anime studio Sunrise, best known for its anime series for “Mobile Suit Gundam”, “Cowboy Bebop”, “Dirty Pair”, “City Hunter” to name a few, went on to work on anime series that would captivate older viewers but also something unique and different for anime fans. An animated TV series, manga series, stage version and animated films were created.

The series was so popular in Japan that for NHK BS ranking for “100 Best Animation”, among 10,000 titles, the 2011 “Tiger & Bunny” animated series was voted #1, followed by the 2014 animated film “Tiger & Bunny: The Rising” which was voted at #2.

“Tiger & Bunny” takes place in NC1978 in the city of Sternbild City. 45 years prior, humans with supernatural abilities known as “NEXT” began appearing in the planet. And now, these people with special abilities and are superheroes sponsored by major corporations such as Pepsi, Softbank, Calbee, etc. and are featured on the popular reality TV show titled “Hero TV”.

Each season, these heroes try to achieve points by capturing/defeating criminals and the best ranked superhero will be crowned as “King of Heroes”. While each are competing with each other, often they work as a superhero team.

The storyline focuses on the relationship of veteran superhero Wild Tiger  and the popular young superhero Barnaby Brooks Jr. (Bunny).

Both are paired with each other to become a superhero duo but because they have different methods of catching the criminals (ie. Kotetsu tends to go on gut instinct than plan out a strategy), both are in odds with each other but are forced to learn how to work with each other as teammates.

Lynn Harris, Global Road Entertainment’s President of Worldwide Production, said “We are thrilled to partner with Imagine, Bandai Namco and Weed Road on Tiger & Bunny. Mr. Ozaki and his team’s globally recognized story and beloved characters provide us with the potential to not only produce a feature film that will appeal to the masses, but also generate a fully developed franchise across the theatrical, television and digital entertainment spaces.”

Ozaki added, “After a long voyage, we have finally reached new ground. We are truly honored to be able to create the future with our collaborative partner whom we wholeheartedly trust. We are determined to live up to our supporters’ and fans’ expectations and bring this exciting project to life.”

“Ron, Brian and I are excited to be partnering with Global Road Entertainment and continuing our relationship with Lynn Harris and Rob Friedman to bring the live action feature film based on the beloved series Tiger & Bunny to fans and audiences around the world,” added Erica Huggins, President of Imagine Entertainment.

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