After thrilling and chilling fans in animated productions over the years, manga creator Shigeru Mizuki’s Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro is set to become a live-action motion picture, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The production is being spearheaded by Japanese production company Shochiku and Hong Kong vfx studio Centro Digital Pictures, which created effects for both of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies and the international hit, Shaolin Soccer.
Created by in Mizuki in 1954, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro is a supernatural series about a one-eyed orphan boy who was born in a graveyard and has the power to communicate with spirits. Dedicated to helping humans and goblins live together in peace, Kitaro is looked after by his dead father’s eyeball, who resides in the boy’s empty left eye socket. The manga first appeared in Shonen Magazine in 1966 and Toei Animation’s cartoon series was broadcast on Fuji Television at various times between 1968 and 1998.
The live-action film is being directed by Katsuhide Motoki (Drugstore Girl) and stars Eiji Wentz and Yo Oizumi, whose voices can both be heard in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated features Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Central Digital Pictures will use CG animation to bring the movie’s many monsters and spirits to the screen as Kitaro tries to save a pair of siblings who have come in possession of a mysterious stone with catastrophic powers. Filming has reportedly begun with Shochiku aiming for an April 2007 release.
