Remember when almost every superhero movie sucked? With the genre's dominance in modernity, it seems like a lifetime ago, but there was a point when Hollywood couldn't crack the nut on the cape and tights crowd. I'm not sure if it was the limited special effects of the era or Tinseltown's insistence to talk down to the source material, but superhero movies seemed destined to remain the cornerstone of the VHS/DVD bargain bin forever.
Now that the worm has turned on long underwear characters, manga and anime find themselves in a similar predicament regarding live-action adaptations. At this point, it feels like manga and anime are incompatible with Hollywood. Maybe Hollywood needs to do is adapt a superhero manga to learn how to navigate the genre.
Now that his dance card is open following his departure from Fast X, Sony Pictures has tapped Justin Lin to helm a One Punch Man film.
After exiting Fast X, it didn't take Justin Lin very long to rev up another franchise. He's set to direct One Punch Man for Sony Pictures. Scott Rosenberg & Jeff Pinkner, who teamed on Jumanji: The Next Level and Venom, are set to write the live-action film adaptation of worldwide hit manga series. Sony Pictures acquired the film rights from Shueisha.
Avi Arad and Ari Arad of Arad Productions (Spider-Man film series, Iron Man, X-Men film series, Venom) are producing the film. Lin also will be a producer and will work with the scribes on a rewrite with the intention to begin production by year's end.
Hugely popular in both Japan and around the world, One Punch Man follows the story of Saitama, a superhero who can defeat any opponent with a single punch but seeks to find a worthy opponent after growing bored by a lack of challenges in his fight against evil. Think Mike Tyson. The studio is bullish on the concept as a franchise starter.
Created in 2009 by Japanese artist ONE as a webcomic, One Punch Man quickly went viral. In 2012, it was then published on Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump Next with illustrations by Yusuke Murata along with ONE. The series became huge with worldwide sales totaling more than 30 million copies. When the English edition published by VIZ Media debuted in the U.S. in 2015, the first and second volumes made the New York Times Manga Bestsellers list and was nominated for an Eisner and a Harvey Award. Since then, the popularity of One Punch Man has led to a critically acclaimed TV anime series, as well as most recently the launch of a video and mobile game.
