Notizie

Tms Entertainment, the world-renowned anime studio behind iconic works like Detective Conan, Lupin III and the upcoming Sakamoto Days adaptation, is about to showcase a rare gem from its past. Recently, the studio announced that it would be celebrating its 60th anniversary with the North American premiere of its debut work, Big X.

Initially released in August 1964, Big X -- a historical science-fiction anime from the mind of Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka -- has long been designated a "lost" anime. According to Anime News Network, Tms Entertainment plans to partially revoke that title by streaming a digitally cleaned and remastered version of Big X Episode 1 on Aug. 12. This is just one of several anime episodes and films that Tms has lined up for its August YouTube streaming slate, with the full lineup seen below.

Related One of Osamu Tezuka's Most Iconic Works Gets an Upcoming Stage Show

Tezuka Productions...

The Wu-Tang saga started in the streets of Staten Island, and now it continues on the Vegas Strip. The legendary group is embarking on its Wu-Tang Clan: The Saga Continues… residency at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas this week with four shows. The first two will be this weekend, in tandem with Super Bowl weekend also happening in Vegas.

RZA says that the residency is a litmus test not just for them, but for the lasting power of the hip-hop residency. “There’s not a lot of shows...

Osamu Tezuka's iconic surgical genius Black Jack is getting a brand-new stage show.

According to Comic Natalie via Anime News Network, the character's upcoming production, Black Jack Mangeki!! Osamu Tezuka Dai-5 Kan: The Fusion of Comics and Theater, is set to run for eight performances at the Human Art Theater in Tokyo next year. Akio Otsuka, who has voiced the character since 1993, will portray Black Jack alongside double-cast co-star Ippei Osako. The latter performer has appeared in several hit films and TV shows, including Shin Godzilla (2016) and Netflix's live-action Alice in Borderland series. Ryusei Kudo serves as both director and scriptwriter. The play -- the fifth entry in Osamu Tezuka's Mangeki! series -- will run from March 20-24, 2024.

Related Iconic Luxury Sneaker Brand Celebrates 75th Anniversary With Bold Astro Boy Collab Turning 75 years old in 2024, a major Japanese fashion brand is celebrating with a new collection of fresh Astro Boy-themed sneakers and clothing.

Black Jack has unveiled a partially AI-generated chapter to commemorate the manga series' 50th anniversary, originally written by pioneering artist Osamu Tezuka.

Per Comic Natalie, Tezuka Productions revealed the 32-page one-shot chapter, titled Black Jack Kikai no Shinzo - Heartbeat Mark II, at Keio's University Mita Campus in Tokyo, Japan. Heartbeat Mark II is a collaborative project developed by Tezuka Productions and Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, which utilized an AI based on the ChatGPT-4 model trained with the use of Black Jack creator Osamu Tezuka's previous works as a dataset. This is notably the first time an AI-generation tool was used to produce a chapter for the classic manga series.

Slayers Artist Rui Araizumi Fights Back Against AI Accusations

Its wild cause haven’t they already done multiple Black Jack series and chapters with different creators? Why go AI with this one? — 💀Organ-Knight💀 (@organ...

Shueisha's Shonen Jump has once again canceled a promising new title, Fabricant 100, to make room for titles it believes may have an even brighter future as a series. Over the next weeks, three new series will make their debut in the magazine as part of the Nextwave initiative, whose authors were all nominees for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Award.

As revealed in Shonen Jump #40, Shueisha's weekly manga anthology that also publishes the latest news and announcements from the manga publisher, Daisuke Enoshima's Fabricant 100 concluded its story with the September 3, 2023, publication of its 36th chapter. Historically, Shonen Jump tends to cancel a title around its 30th Chapter so Fabricant 100 apparently was not able to escape that. On the heels of Fabricant 100's cancelation news, Shonen Jump also announced the upcoming debut of three new titles: Yoshihiko Hayashi's Mama Yuyu, Takeru Hokazono's Kagurabachi, and Elck Itsumo's Two on Ice.

The Fable's manga ended in 2019, but with the end of its sequel: The Fable: The Second Contact comes a first chance to preview the anime adaptation.

Per X (formerly Twitter), the "Invincible Masked Assassin" Akira Sato is shown in a comical teaser before revealing a darker side. The official PR account for the anime hypes up Sato as a man with two faces, promising that the anime will preserve the atmosphere befitting of the original The Fable - one of the best-selling manga of all time.

Related: The Fable’s Upcoming Anime Can Be a More Grounded Tokyo Revengers

TVアニメ『#ザ・ファブル』 ティザーPV初公開──!!!

The godfather of anime and manga is still inarguably Osamu Tezuka, who jumpstarted the mediums as many know them several decades ago. His manga works include the iconic Astro Boy, as well as Kimba the White Lion, Dororo, and others. Unfortunately, one of his classic works is being revisited, and the result is rubbing many fans the wrong way.

Black Jack is one of several famous works by Tezuka, with the manga receiving a new chapter for its 50th anniversary. Said chapter will be developed using AI, which has become an increasingly controversial element of manga, anime, and creative fields as a whole. Given the subject matter of the mangaka's most notable franchises, this makes Black Jack a particularly ironic choice to use for AI experimentation. It all sounds like something out of a dystopian hi-tech horror story, and it very well may be.

Related: Why AI Anime Will Never...

With the announcement that a new chapter of the classic Black Jack manga by the legendary Osamu Tezuka will be written with the help of a popular generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) program, more fuel has been added to the controversy surrounding AI and the manga industry, which is an extension of the worries caused to creators by the development of AI generative programs.

As reported in the national Japan news daily The Mainichi, Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack will publish a new chapter of the classic manga in commemoration of the series' 50th anniversary in November 2023. However, unlike previous memorial efforts, Black Jack's new chapter will be produced with the support of the generative program ChatGPT-4.

AI Will Write A New Chapter of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack

Black Jack tells the story of brilliant surgeon Kuroo Hazama Aka Dr. Black Jack, who will take on any patient no matter their...

The 1970 edition of the Cannes Film Festival was noted for giving rise to several bold new voices. Robert Altman arrived as an established (and notoriously troublesome) TV director but left a Palme d’Or winner with M*A*S*H, his launchpad to becoming one of the most pivotal figures of contemporary cinema. In the Directors’ Fortnight competition, then a year old, the German absurdist comedy Even Dwarfs Started Small gave audiences a hint of what a 20-something festival first-timer named Werner Herzog might have up his creative sleeve.

Over in the Critics’ Week sidebar, a rising English director named Ken Loach also was making his Cannes debut (like Herzog with his second feature).

The bespectacled 33-year-old had arrived as part of what he describes as a “rather snooty” U.K. delegation that didn’t have much time for someone then known for hard-hitting TV docudramas and not considered part...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including a Béla Tarr double bill, with new 4K restorations of Damnation and Sátántangó, Léa Mysius’ The Five Devils, Radu Jude’s short The Potemkinists, and Kira Kovalenko’s Unclenching the Fists.

They will also present a series on past Cannes Film Festival selections with films by Abderrahmane Sissako, Alice Rohrwacher, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Jeremy Saulnier, and more. Ana Vaz’s The Age of Stone and most recent work It is Night in America will arrive on the service, plus a Merchant Ivory series.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

May 1 – Blind Spot, directed by Claudia von Alemann | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

May 2 – Heat and Dust, directed by James Ivory | Gilded Passions: Films by Merchant Ivory

May 3 – Damnation, directed by Béla Tarr | Béla Tarr: A Double Bill

May 4 – The Bostonians, directed by...

Garnett also worked on Earth Girls Are Easy and seminal TV drama Cathy Come Home.

Tony Garnett, the film and television producer behind Ken Loach’s breakthrough features, has died aged 83.

The British producer collaborated with Loach from 1965 to 1979 on films including Kes, Family Life and Black Jack as well as seminal TV drama Cathy Come Home.

World Productions, the company he co-founded in 1990, said in a statement: “After a short illness, Tony Garnett, the legendary TV and film producer… died around midday on January 12. Tony was a great man and an inspirational producer who will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.

In 1985, Macoto Tezka (son of the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka) met musician and TV personality Haruo Chicada who had made a soundtrack to a movie which didn’t actually exist: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers.

At the time Macoto was just 22 years old, a film-student with many short experimental films under his belt, but yet to make a feature-debut and of course had the pressure of the Tezuka name. With Chicada as producer, Tezka then adapted this “fake soundtrack” into the real movie story of “The Stardust Brothers”.

With inspiration from “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Tezuka assembled a cast of some of Japan’s most famous musicians of the time, including such greats as Kiyohiko Ozaki, Issay, Sunplaza Nakano and Hiroshi Takano, alongside many famous names in Manga such as Monkey Punch (Lupin the 3rd), Shinji Nagashima (Hanaichi Monme), Yosuke Takahashi (Mugen Shinsi...

It’s no secret that Asians are woefully underrepresented in American Cinema, but that thinking has started to shift in the last few years. This is especially true afer the majority-Asian cast Crazy Rich Asians became the most successful rom-com in decades. According to Vice.com, there are a slew of blockbuster movies coming out soon with Asian lead characters. We’re even about to see our first Asian Marvel Super Hero. In the past, Hollywood has seen backlash for constantly whitewashing films, removing Asian actors from source materials and casting white Americans to take their places. It seems that Hollywood is starting to see the power of the Asian American market. Here are 6 Asian actors who have appeared in gambling and casino movies over the years.

#1. Aaron Yoo

Aaron Yoo is a Korean American actor who was born in Dallas, TX. He has been in several feature films such as Disturbia,...

Crystal Crisis is a cute and chaotic new color-matching combat game presented like a one-on-one fighting game, but instead of pressing buttons to kick and punch, players arrange falling gems into matching colors to clear them from the screen and inflict damage on their opponents. Yes, this is Nicalis’ version of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo… Only with a much more complicated game mechanic than the Tetris-like gameplay of That Street Fighter inspired puzzle game!

In much the same way that Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. combined characters from multiple franchises, Crystal Crisis features 19 unique playable characters from a myriad of games, including Quote and Curly Brace from Cave Story, Isaac from the Binding of Isaac, Astro Boy and Black Jack from Tezuka Productions and many more. All of whom pretty much, in terms of the gameplay, are indistinguishable from one another – after all, your not playing As those characters,...

Makoto Tezuka, also known as Macoto Tezka, was born in 1961 in Tokyo and is a Japanese film and anime director, with his own company, Neontetra. Son of the Manga artist Osamu Tezuka, he co-owns Tezuka Productions and helped in releasing the works of his late father. Some of his works include “Hakuchi: The Innocent” (1999), “Black Kiss” (2004), the anime “Black Jack” (2004).

On the occasion of his 1985’s cult debut feature “The Legend of the Stardust Brothers“ (“Hoshikuzu Kyodai no Densetsu”) being released by Third Window Films we speak with him about the making of that film, the challenges and the outcomes.

The making of “The Legend of the Stardust Brothers” has an upside-down story-line, as you started from the soundtrack. Can you tell us the story of how you found Haruo Chikada (the music’s author) and how you two started to collaborate?

Haruo Chikada is a musician who made that album first.

Sony Pictures Classics has scooped up North American rights to Ken Loach's period drama "Jimmy's Hall" -- two days before it bows in the Main Competition at Cannes. Wild Bunch handled the sale. Whenever Ken Loach has a new film in the works, you can bet your bottom dollar it will premiere at Cannes. The Brit director and master of kitchen sink realism has been a Cannes Competition mainstay since "Black Jack" won the fest's coveted Fipresci Prize in 1979. "Jimmy's Hall," his latest, will make its way to the Croisette this week. But will it be his last? (Trailer below.) In 2012, his admirable if saccharine crime comedy "The Angels' Share" snapped up the Jury Prize, and in 2006 he won the Palme d'Or for the Irish historical drama "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," starring Cillian Murphy. Penned by longtime collaborator Paul Laverty, "Jimmy's Hall" will of course be competing for the Palme,...

British director Ken Loach holds the world record for getting films accepted at Cannes: Jimmy’s Hall, Loach’s latest and his largest-scale production ever, is his 12th to be selected. The movie, about a fighter for freedom of speech in church-dominated 1920s Ireland, is Loach’s 10th collaboration with writer Paul Laverty. Loach, 77, has won nine prizes at Cannes, including the Fipresci award for 1979’s Black Jack, the Palme d’Or for 2006’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about Ireland’s 1920 civil war, and the jury prize for 2012’s The Angel’s Share, the latter two written by Laverty. Loach

read more...

Exclusive: Jimmy’s Hall, which has begun shooting in Ireland, is likely to be Ken Loach’s last narrative feature - but he will continue to direct documentaries.

Ken Loach’s upcoming drama, Jimmy’s Hall, will likely be his last, according to regular producer Rebecca O’Brien.

“This is probably the last narrative feature for Ken,” O’Brien told ScreenDaily. “There are a few documentary ideas kicking around, and that will probably be the way to go, but this is a serious period-drama with a lot of moving parts so it’s a big thing to put together. I think we should go out while we’re on top.”

O’Brien, who has produced more than a dozen features with Loach since 1990, said that the 77 year-old director is likely to continue to make documentaries and TV work but that he is “unlikely” to make another narrative feature.

“It’s such a huge operation and Ken doesn...

Exclusive: Jimmy’s Hall, which has begun shooting in Ireland, is likely to be Ken Loach’s last narrative feature - but he will continue to direct documentaries.

Ken Loach’s upcoming drama, Jimmy’s Hall, will likely be his last, according to regular producer Rebecca O’Brien.

“This is probably the last narrative feature for Ken,” O’Brien told ScreenDaily. “There are a few documentary ideas kicking around, and that will probably be the way to go, but this is a serious period-drama with a lot of interconnecting elements so it’s a big thing to put together. I think we should go out while we’re on top.”

O’Brien, who has produced more than a dozen features with Loach since 1990, said that the 77 year-old director is likely to continue to make documentaries and TV work but that he is “unlikely” to make another narrative feature.

“It’s such a huge operation and Ken doesn...

For some it wouldn’t be Cannes without Ken Loach. The British auteur has won prizes in Cannes dating back to 1979’s Black Jack, and took home the Palme d’Or for 2006’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley. In all Loach has negotiated the Croisette’s famous red carpet a staggering 10 times. Photos: Cannes 2012: Competition Lineup Features 'Cosmopolis,' 'Moonrise Kingdom,' 'Killing Them Softly' His latest movie, The Angels’ Share, teams him with writer and regular collaborator Paul Laverty for an unusually lighthearted romp about some down-on-their-luck ex-cons trying to go straight. Loach talked with

read more...

His output can sometimes be a little too “American Apparel” (if you know what I mean), but you’d be hard-pressed to argue Wes Anderson lacks cinephilia. And since his filmography has markings that range from Jean Vigo (Rushmore) to British ’60s animation (Fantastic Mr. Fox), it’s a given that his next, Moonrise Kingdom, will also be taking some high-brow cues. (You can glean it just from the trailer, for God’s sake.)

When speaking with EW, the corduroy-loving filmmaker revealed such influences in a rather open, expected fashion. This time out, the map-hopping titles we can try and (inevitably) cite are Ken Loach‘s 1979 film Black Jack, the Alan Parker-scripted Melody, and François Truffaut‘s Small Change. (Fun fact: Steven Spielberg convinced his Close Encounters actor to alter the film’s proper American title, Pocket Money, since it was already taken by a little-seen Paul Newman vehicle...

While we had our ideas about the possible influences on Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" after watching and deconstructing the trailer -- Jean-Luc Godard's "Le Pierrot Fou" and "Little Fugitive" -- the director himself has gone ahead and cleared up the movies that were in his mind when he set out to make the film.

“There’s two movies that I really love that were both kind of huge inspirations for 'Moonrise Kingdom,' ” Anderson told EW. “One is a movie called 'Black Jack' that’s directed by Ken Loach. The other one is another British movie that’s the first thing Alan Parker ever did. He wrote the script. It’s called 'Melody.' They’re both movies that I only found as I worked on this story. I was looking for movies that are about pre-teenage romance. And there’s a Truffaut movie 'Small Change.

Two of the most eagerly anticipated films of 2012 would have to be Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, set to open Cannes on May 16, and Ridley Scott's Prometheus, opening wide in early June. For Entertainment Weekly, Rob Brunner gets a few words with Edward Norton and Anderson, who tells him that there are "two movies that I really love that were both kind of huge inspirations for Moonrise Kingdom. One is a movie called Black Jack that's directed by Ken Loach. The other one is another British movie that's the first thing Alan Parker ever did. He wrote the script. It's called Melody. They're both movies that I only found as I worked on this story. I was looking for movies that are about pre-teenage romance. And there's a Truffaut movie Small Change. That's really one of the inspirations for this movie, because it's what made me start thinking about doing this sort of story.

There’s no other way to put it: Wes Anderson’s latest film, Moonrise Kingdom, is extremely Wes Anderson-y: quirky, warm-hearted, and visually stunning. Starring newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, the movie is about a couple of pre-teen runaways who are pursued by a scout master (Edward Norton), a local police officer (Bruce Willis), and the girl’s parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). We recently talked to Anderson and Norton about the film.

What’s it about?

“It’s a romance between a 12-year-old boy and girl set in 1965 on an island off the coast of new England,...

Raindance Film Festival, London

Indie cinema means so many different things to so many different people, it's barely a useful category any more, but the sheer breadth of movies made under the studio radar here (nearly 100 features) can only be encouraging. At the opening end you get a resourceful Us sci-fi drama (the self-explanatory Another Earth, pictured); at the close, an offbeat Chilean slacker romance (Bonsai). And in between, everything from Balkan youth movies (Tilva Rosh is described as "Jackass meets Stand By Me") to gamblers for Jesus (documentary Holy Rollers) to top-notch Japanese ghost stories (Kaidan Horror Classics). There's a healthy British contingent, too, with 10 premieres including Simon Callow and Harry Enfield talking in rhyming couplets (Acts Of Godfrey) and black comedy Black Pond, starring Simon Amstell and Chris Langham.

Apollo Piccadilly, SW1, Wed to 9 Oct

Contrast/brilliance – North Yorkshire On Film, North Yorkshire

This is the sort of...

Quadrangle Film Festival, Shoreham

Leave your red carpet gear at home and get out the tent for this rural festival, set in 19th-century farm buildings, with screenings in the stables, discussion in the granary, and camping in the meadows. The mainly documentary programme is filled with curiosities: film-makers in conversation (Iain Sinclair, veteran experimentalist John Smith), special guests introducing their favourite documentaries (Herzog making-of Burden Of Dreams, eccentric family study The Moon And The Sledgehammer, etc), a preview of Afghanistan doc To Hell And Back Again, plus short films, art installations and the great outdoors.

Fri to 4 Sep, quadranglefilmfest.com

Metal On Film, Wolverhampton

As part of the project to reclaim Birmingham and the Black Country's musical heritage, a series of screenings hammering home just how important the genre is. And how ridiculous. The line between the two is often blurry. At one end, Spinal Tap is a compulsory inclusion,...