Viz Pictures has licensed all three live action films based on Naoki Urasawa’s prize-winning 20th Century Boys manga, which has sold over 20 million volumes in Japan.  Viz Pictures plans to release the first two 20th Century Boys films on DVD in 2009 with the third following in 2010.  The Viz Cinema in San Francisco will celebrate its grand opening on August 15th with the American theatrical debut of the first installment of the 20th Century Boys trilogy, and on August 28th the Viz Cinema will host the world premiere of the third and final installment of the trilogy, which will be presented simultaneously with its debut in Japan.

Viz Media, which publishes Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys manga here in the U.S., will distribute the live action 20th Century Boys DVDs.  Yukihiko Tsutsumi, who helmed Happily Ever After (also licensed by Viz Pictures), directed the 20th Century Boys trilogy, which is one of the biggest projects in the history of Japanese cinema with a budget of over 6 billion yen and a cast of more than 300.  The movies follow Urasawa’s suspenseful science fiction saga very closely, and fans of the manga should not be disappointed.