Movies: Afro Samurai Jumps from Animation to Live Action [#sdcc]

July 21, 2011 by Hannibal Tabu Leave a Comment

In "oh, it's about to go down" news, the first Comic-Con announcement of significant interest to our community has come down from The Hollywood Reporter …

Afro Samurai, the cult hit manga and anime in which Samuel L. Jackson voices the main character, is making a bound to the big-screen, it was announced as Comic-Con 2011 took off in San Diego …

Like its title suggest, Afro Samurai blends hip-hop and soul with Japanese elements. Set in a future and feudal Japan, the story follows a man seeking revenge for his father’s decapitation at the hands of Justice, a power-seeking man dressed as a cowboy.

The manga, by Takeshi Okazaki, was originally published in the late 1990s. An anime series made by Gonzo aired on Spike TV in the 2000s, and a 2009 TV movie special won a primetime Emmy, becoming the first anime to be nominated and to win the TV award. RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan was behind the show’s music.

According to Indomnia, the plan is to attach a writer and director this summer and complete casting by the end of the yea in order to be able to shoot at Pinewood Indomina Studios in the Dominican Republic in 2012.

No word on Jackson's involvement in the adaptation — at his age, he might be considered a little outside of the physicality required by the role — but we'll be following this story with interest. Oh, here's a look at what the anime looked like, in case you missed it …

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

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About Hannibal Tabu

Born in Rockford, Illinois; raised in Memphis, Tennessee; matriculated in
Tacoma, Washington and broadcasting live from Los Angeles, Hannibal Tabu is
a writer, a brother, a husband, a misanthrope, a son, an emcee, an uncle, a
poet, a father, a designer, a nephew, a romantic, a storyteller, and by
god, a fan. He spent more than ten years doing the journalist thing for
Vibe, Slave Trade, MTV Online, Rap Pages, America Online, the Los Angeles
Sentinel, Spinnerrack.com, Speak and The Source. Hannibal has worked as a
web designer/producer and graphic artist for American Honda, eHobbies.com,
Quicken.com, Express.com, the California Association of REALTORS, Disney
Channel, NextPlanetOver.com, Toyota Motor Sales, Kaiser Permanente,
California Bank & Trust and many more. As a poet, Hannibal has been
published in The Drumming Between Us, (sic) Vice Verse, Drumvoices Review,
Voices From Leimert Park and other anthologies, as well as being author of
the collection BORN BENEATH AN ANGRY STAR and co-author of FLIGHT MANUAL.
As a novelist, he's written THE CROWN: ASCENSION and FARAWAY (both
available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble & Smashwords) and the upcoming sci fi
political thriller ROGUE NATION. He's the winner of the 2012 Top Cow Talent Hunt, writer of Waso: Will To Power for Stranger Comics, Project: Wildfire for Legends Press, and co-writer of an issue of Watson & Holmes (alongside 2 Guns writer Steven Grant) for New Paradigm Studios. For six years he was the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Herald-Dispatch group of newspapers, is currently the co-owner and editor-in-chief of Black geek website Komplicated at the Good
Men Project, and uses his Operative Network website (www.operative.net) to
publish his poetry, market what he's doing, rant at the world and emit
strangled cries for help. In addition to all that, Hannibal collects comic
books, has scores of action figures, DJs private parties, is a Mac OS
zealot, sings and sometimes even hosts karaoke, practices a form of
spirituality based on ancient Egyptian belief, and goes to bed every day,
secretly hoping that half the world will commit suicide in his honor.