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GANTZ a weird, violent, and pretty damn gory anime is now getting the live-action treatment, according to ANN.
The film will be adapted into two live-action films starring Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and award-winning actor Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Death Note, NANA). Shinsuke Sato (The Princess Blade, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror) is directing.
The project is budgeted at 4 billion yen (about US $45 million). Addressing the extremely violent nature of the movie, Ninomiya said, "I'm happy with just appearing in a work that I love so much! I'll try my very best to make everyone love it too!" Matsuyama said, "This work has so many original and bold points. I'm going to try to tackle the challenge of this new kind of movie."The story follows a young Tokyo college student who is reanimated after a deadly subway accident. Kei Kurono (Ninomiya) and his friend Masaru Kato (Matsuyama) go on violent, seemingly endless missions at the behest of an unseen host.
Yūsuke Watanabe (20th Century Boys trilogy, Bloody Monday, Kami no Shizuku) is writing the screenplays. Takahiro Sato (Death Note, 20th Century Boys) is producing the project, and Digital Frontier (Summer Wars, Appleseed, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone) is in charge of the CG work.
Filming begins next month and is slated to end next April. The two leads have been undergoing training and practicing action sequences. The films will open in the winter and spring of 2011 in Japan.
To get an idea on how gory the anime is, check out this fanmade AMV: