Katsuhiro Otomo’s Live-Action Domu Pilot Film Premieres at Niigata International Animation Film Festival
The official Twitter for the forthcoming first Niigata International Animation Festival confirmed today that a seven-minute pilot clip of the unmade live-action film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo‘s (AKIRA) classic sci-fi manga Domu will be screened in its “Katsuhiro OTOMO‘s Retrospective” section.
Other films to be screened in the section include Harmagedon (1983), Robot Carnival (1987), AKIRA digitally remastered edition(1988), Rouzin-Z (1991), MEMORIES (1995), GUNDAM Mission to the Rise (1998), Metropolis (2001), Steam Boy (2004), and SHOET PEACE (2013).
Otomo launched the Domu manga in 1980. Dark Horse manga was 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 the 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 Sensōand 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.
