Summit Entertainment and Imagi Studios have announced a release date for the computer animated Astro Boy feature film. Mark your calendars for October 23rd 2009. The film will hit theaters the same day as Mira Nair’s Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia and the Phillip Noyce-directed adaptation of Dirt Music. Check out the full press release after the jump.

Los Angeles, CA (September 22, 2008) – Summit Entertainment will release Astro Boy in North America on Friday, October 23, 2009, it was announced today by Rob Friedman, Co-Chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment, and Erin Corbett, President of Imagi Studios U.S. Summit and Imagi are putting together the final details on a marketing plan designed to reach both the family movie-going audience and adult fans of Astro Boy alike. Plan includes a commitment from a major fast food restaurant partner as well as alliances in the areas of toys, games, books and others, soon to be announced.

Produced by Imagi Studios, the CG-animated motion picture will bow on over 3,000 screens across North America. International release dates for the film are to be announced soon.

“We are pleased to bring the exceptional world of Astro Boy to the big screen for movie-goers in North America,” said Friedman. “We have lined up some key marketing partners for the film and our October date allows us to put the film out at the right time enabling our partners to reach their targeted audiences with on-going marketing programs tied to the film.”

“A beloved icon for over half-a-century, this marks Astro Boy’s first time on the big screen, making our film one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year,” stated Corbett. “We’re thrilled to be bringing this remarkable and enduring property to fans – both old and new – as a grand-scale action-filled adventure with cutting-edge CG technology.”

Astro Boy’s all-star cast features the voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy with Freddie Highmore in the title role. David Bowers (Flushed Away) is directing Astro Boy from a screenplay written by Timothy Harris (Trading Places, Kindergarten Cop), with Maryann Garger producing.

The iconic character Astro Boy has found global popularity since his creation in the early 1950s by Japan’s Osamu Tezuka, known as the “god of manga” and “father of anime”, and has been the hero of three acclaimed animated television series aired around the world.

Set in the future, Imagi Studio’s Astro Boy is a classic superhero origin story about a young robot with incredible powers, created by a brilliant scientist, and his adventure-filled journey in search of his identity and destiny, taking him into a netherworld of robot gladiators before he returns to save Metro City.

Summit Entertainment, which entered into a global alliance with Imagi Studios earlier this year, will distribute Astro Boy worldwide except for Imagi’s reserved territories of Japan, Hong Kong and China.

About Imagi Studios
Imagi International Holdings Limited (“Imagi”) is listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Imagi’s principal business is the development and production of CG-animated theatrical feature films. Imagi’s first motion picture TMNT was released in March 2007, opening number one in U.S. box office revenue, only the third time in history that an Asian-made film has achieved that honor. Imagi has development operations in Los Angeles, California, and CG production studios at its Chai Wan (Hong Kong) headquarters.

About Summit Entertainment LLC
Summit Entertainment is a worldwide theatrical motion picture development, financing, production and distribution studio. The studio handles all aspects of marketing and distribution for both its own internally developed motion pictures as well as acquired pictures. Summit Entertainment, LLC also represents international sales for both its own slate and third party product. Summit Entertainment, LLC plans to release 10 to 12 films annually.