Shinji Higuchi, director of the live-action adaptation of the highly-popular franchise Attack on Titan, has announced on Wednesday that the upcoming movie is set to have two film adaptations.
The movies are being filmed across Japan, including in Hashima Island (better known as the “Battleship Island”) in Nagasaki Prefecture, and is set to be released in Summer 2015.
Higuchi also adds that the movie will be within the storyline and characters of the manga, while incorporating new characters & enemies, which will be supervised by creator Hajime Isayama.
Higuchi describes that it is “big challenge” to direct the movie, but also says that he felt great pressure but, at the same time, honored to do the movie.
Aside from the 23-year-old Haruma Miura, the cast of the movie will also include Hiroki Hasegawa, Kiko Mizuhara, Kanata Hongou, Takahiro Miura, Nanami Sakuraba, Satoru Matsuo, Satomi Ishihara, Taki Pierre, Jun Kunimura, Shu Watanabe, Ayame Misaki, and Rina Takeda.
Yusuke Watanabe, who worked on movie adaptations like Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, live-action Gantz and Gatchaman, will handle the story’s screenplay. Film critic Tomohiro Machiyama, who is also a close friend of the creator, will aid Watanabe and Isayama in the movie’s scriptwriting.
Attack of Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, which was first serialized on Bessatsu Shounen Magazine in September 2009 and currently has 14 volumes. It launched two more manga series and a light-novel adaptation.
The series became a commercial success when its anime series was aired from April to September 2013, directed by High School of the Dead director Tetsuro Araki, and Shakugan no Shana scriptwriter Yasuko Kobayashi handled the scripts.
Two compilation anime films, entitled Attack on Titan Part I: Guren no Yumiya and Attack on Titan Part II: Jiyu no Tsubasa, are set to be screened this November and in 2015 respectively.
North American anime distributor FUNimation Entertainment licensed the series and is streamed through their video streaming service, as well as on Crunchyroll, the same time as Japan.
In Southeast Asia, the anime series premiered on the Pan-regional anime channel ANIPLUS HD in December 2013.
