Mandalay Acquires Rights to Full Metal Panic Movie
Posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Our friends at FirstShowing report that Mandalay have picked up the rights to develop a big-screen live action adaptation of the version of the Japanese manga/anime series Full Metal Panic. I haven’t heard of the series before tonight, but apparently it tells the story of a member of the covert anti-terrorist mercenary group who is tasked with protecting a Japanese high school girl with mystical powers. If the one-sentence log-line doesn’t immediately grab you, chances are you’ll be completely turned off by the fact that High School Musical Zac Efron is interested in starring in the project. I know I was.
Hollywood’s attempts to translate anime into live-action American feature films have resulted in some spectacular failures – Fist of the North Star, Guyver, Speed Racer, and most recently Dragonball. Does this mean that the live-action American anime adaptation is doomed? Not necessarily. It just means that it isn’t easy to execute.
