Takashi Miike To Direct Live Adaptation Of Gory Sci-Fi Manga Terra Formars
This article is more than 2 years old
Well this is going to be crazy, and potentially awesome. Japanese wingnut auteur Takashi Miike is venturing back into science fiction with a live action adaptation of the popular manga Terra Formars, which is just nuts enough to make this a damn near perfect combination.
Miike is an insanely prolific filmmaker, and has been for years. He has 98 official directing credits to his name, and though he is probably most widely known for his ultra-violent gangster pictures, like Ichi the Killer and the Dead or Alive trilogy, he’s dabbled in just about every genre you can imagine. This includes horror with the likes of Audition, westerns (Sukiyaki Western Django), and even a full on musical with Claymation sequences in The Happiness of the Katakuris and a historical epic with 13 Assassins.
You seriously never know what the hell the guy is going to next, and that’s what makes the idea of his Terra Formars sound so great. Written by Sasuga Yu, with illustrations by Tachibana Kenichi, the title has been serialized since 2011, sold more than a million copies worldwide, and even led to an anime of the same name. The stories are full of sci-fi-horror action, blood, mayhem, and insanity, and that’s just fine with us.
As the human race turns our eyes to Mars, scientists in the 21st century attempt to manipulate the surface of the Red Planet so humans can survive there. Their plan involves sending cockroaches and mold to Mars, and if you’ve ever seen a sci-fi movie, you can imagine many ways this goes wrong. In the year 2577, the first manned ship touches down on the surface carrying six crew members, and what do they find but super strong mutant, humanoid cockroaches. The crew gets wiped out, and Earth sends highly skilled commando teams to wipe out the bugs and retake Mars. This sounds right up Miike’s alley.
Terra Formars has reportedly been in development for two years now, and while there is no word on a budget or stars, if they’re going to do this, and do this right, you have to imagine it will have a fair amount of money to play with. This could be Miike’s biggest, most ambitious film to date, and watching him bring some of his trademark madness and anarchy to outer space sounds like a damn fine time to us.
We don’t know exactly when, but Terra Formars should open in Japan sometime next year.
