Hollywood Manga "Monster"

[Mulboyne]

Reuters: New Line Cinema to Adapt 'Monster' Manga
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - New Line Cinema has acquired feature film rights to "Monster," a best-selling Japanese manga comic book series from author Naoki Urasawa. "Monster" is a psychological thriller that tells the story of a young doctor who saves the life of a little boy only to find out a few years later that the life he saved was that of a brilliant killer. The doctor must then track down the young killer and solve a larger conspiracy. Urasawa is regarded as a master of the distinctive manga comics style that originated in Japan, where "Monster" has been adapted into an animated television series and has spawned 18 volumes as a manga series.

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Manga artist attempts grand remake
Naoki Urasawa's introduction to manga was "Tetsuwan Atom" (Astro Boy), the monumental sci-fi comic about a robot named Atom drawn by late manga genius Osamu Tezuka...Four decades later, the little boy is now one of the most prominent and best-selling manga artists in Japan. One of his masterpieces, "Monster," set in 1986 in Dusseldorf, West Germany, is a dark tale about a Japanese surgeon, Dr. Tenma, who saves the life of a critically injured boy, only to later learn that the child has grown into a demonic young man able to drive others to death using mind control. The 18-volume saga has been made into an animated TV show and translated into several languages, including French and German. An English-language version is coming soon. New Line Cinema in Hollywood is seeking to acquire film rights to the comic, Urasawa says.

Urasawa is now in the midst of reviving his favorite childhood comic. In 2003, he began serializing "Pluto," an ambitious remake of "the Greatest Robot," in the biweekly Big Comic Original...Traditionally in Japan, manga characters were under the exclusive control of their creators and perished with their authors. In the United States, popular comic characters, such as Superman or Batman, are immortal, as the copyright holder passes them on to new artists...In May, "Pluto"-though still not finished-earned Urasawa the grand prize at the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, an honor given to the most outstanding comic of the past year. He also won the award in 1999 for "Monster." "Like Shakespeare, Tezuka should be regarded as a literary master," Urasawa says. "Yet, his work is confined to the manga genre. I hope my `Pluto' helps people see him in a new light. That's one of the reasons why I am writing this...We are the last generation to have experienced Tezuka's manga in real time. I want to pass the baton on to the next," he says.

He also hopes that by highlighting Tezuka's masterwork, he can whittle away at the prejudice against manga in general. `The phrase `an adult reading manga on the train' usually has a negative connotation. It doesn't need to be that way. The reaction should be similar to `adults reading novels or newspapers' but it isn't. I think people who look down on manga haven't experienced the pleasure of reading it," Urasawa says. "But on the other hand, being on a bottom rung isn't always bad," Urasawa adds and smiles. "It motivates me. If manga was regarded as something like classical music or highbrow art, I would feel, `OK, that's it for me'."