The Japanese publisher Kodansha has founded its own film studio in Hollywood to adapt its extensive manga catalog for cinema and TV productions. We summarize the details.
New studio in Hollywood
With a history spanning over 100 years and a manga and light novel catalog of more than 2,300 titles covering virtually every genre, Kodansha is one of the largest publishers in Japan. The most famous works are “Blue Lock”, “Attack on Titan”, “Akira”, “Tokyo Revengers”, “The Seven Deadly Sins” and “TenSura”.
While these stories have already received successful anime adaptations, numerous other series from the publisher are still waiting for their opportunity. However, that could soon change – at least when it comes to possible live-action film adaptations.
These are to be realized through the newly founded Kodansha Studios in Hollywood, which the publisher opened together with Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and producer Nicolas Gonda (“Song to Song”).
Zhao will take on the role of chief creative officer, while Gonda will serve as president and chief operations officer.
Global expansion
The studio is dedicated to the development, production and worldwide marketing of live-action adaptations of Japanese manga for cinema and television and is intended to bring together internationally renowned filmmakers with talented manga authors.
The resulting productions are part of Kodansha’s global expansion strategy and will therefore also be specifically released outside of Japan in order to reach an international audience.
Just a few weeks ago, the live-action adaptation of “Akira” was finally canceled by Warner Bros. after more than 20 years and the rights have been up for sale again ever since. It’s quite possible that Kodansha will now take matters into his own hands.
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Via Comic Natalie
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