Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, known in Japan as Mighty Atom, first appeared in a manga series in 1952. The character went on to appear in manga and newspaper strips for decades. In the 1960s, the manga was adapted into a live action TV series, a movie, and an anime series for Japanese TV. The series was also shown on TV in the U.S., and has been available on home video. A new CGI anime was on TV in the U.S. beginning in 2004 (see "New 'Astro Boy' Series on Kids WB in Early 2004").
The manga was translated into English by Frederik L. Schodt for Dark Horse Comics, which released the complete series (although it does not appear to be currently available). There have been numerous additional manga and TV series produced over the years, including a 2009 animated movie produced by Imagi Entertainment (see "'Astro Boy' Footage Premiering" and "ICv2 Talks to 'Astro Boy' Director David Bowers"). Last year plans for an animated TV series reboot were announced (see "'Astro Boy' Gets New Treatment for TV").
Animal Logic is mainly known for its animation studio, which did work on The Lego Movie and Happy Feet, and its VFX team which has done work on Iron Man 3, Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ultron. No writer or director is attached, but Animal Logic’s Zareh Nalbandian will produce the film, with Jason Lust executive producing. Ranger 7 Films’ Mike Callaghan and Reuben Liber will also exec produce.
"We’ve seen him as a manga, an anime, and an animated movie but we’ve never seen him as a live-action movie or him as a superhero," Nalbandian told THR. "We actually see him in the same league as an Iron Man."
