Astro Boy Script, Financing News

Imagi Animation, the CGI studio responsible for last year's TMNT, has received a major investment boost.

According to Variety, the company sold $311 million HK (roughly equivalent to $40 million USD) worth of new stock to investor Mark Pawley, the former investment banking head of Credit Suisse's Asia Pacific office. This gives Pawley 18% of the expanded company and the right to nominate two people to Imagi's board of directors. The investor, who has been negotiating this deal for the past 9 months, bought the shares through his Oxley Spring Media company.

Mark Pawley Pays for Complete Imagi Movie

Imagi, which has scheduled a new animated film once every 8 months beginning in 2009, says the cash will go towards "the development of four full-length feature computer graphics imagery animation movies scheduled tentatively to be released from 2009 to 2011."

Considering that the studio cranked out 2007's TMNT for about $35 million, this means that Pawley has essentially financed a complete movie for Imagi.

The studio has two movies currently in production, both of which are adaptations of classic anime properties: Gatchaman, which makes its theatrical debut in early 2009, and Astro Boy, coming later that year. Summit Entertainment has received the worldwide distribution rights for both movies, except for Japan, Hong Kong and China. Imagi will do their own distribution in those territories.

The news boosted Imagi's stock prices to 11¢ a share, a 40% increase over last week's price.

David Bowers Says Astro Boy movie Will be Faithful to Original

One of the major concerns about Imagi's adaptation of Astro Boy is the fear that the studio will tinker with the hallowed property. Ever since Osamu Tezuka created the character in 1952, Astro Boy has become one of the most beloved figures in anime, rivaling Disney's Mickey Mouse in popularity. Obviously, that's a massive fan base that doesn't want their hero to be messed with.

It's been director David (Flushed Away) Bowers' job to allay those fan concerns, while updating the concept for a new millennium.

"The characters are all there," Bowers told Sci-Fi Wire at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 5. "It is the original characters, but we have new characters, and Astro's basic journey is the same. He starts off in a slightly different environment. Astro's living in this floating city. But that's where the differences end, really. I must say, I just wanted to get to the emotional core of the movie and have people have a few laughs along the way and hopefully make them cry a couple of times. Then I'll be happy."

What's the Film About?

Nicolas Cage (The Ant Bully) voices the role of a brilliant scientist who creates a robot boy (voiced by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's Freddie Highmore) to replace his deceased son. When the scientist rejects the robot, Astro is forced to make his own way in the world, and learns to use his powers to save the world from an as-yet undiscovered peril. Timothy Harris (Kindergarten Cop) is writing the script.

"I think the fact that the story has survived five decades . . . I'm not going to start comparing it to Shakespeare, but good stories tend to last for a reason," Bowers continues. "It's a simple, dramatic story that's as relevant now as it was then.

"Astro Boy in the 1950s . . . looks a little bit old-fashioned and a little bit quaint in its way. But it's worth remembering that at the time it came out and was a big success it was absolutely cutting-edge and futuristic and amazing-looking. And that's what our Astro Boy is going to be. We're going to be sort of reintroducing Astro Boy, but it's a very, very modern movie. But this universal theme that I think is timeless is still running through it."

Look for Astro Boy to come to theatres in late 2009.

Astro Boy poster

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