Sony Pictures Entertainment has signed SAMURAI JACK and DEXTER'S LABORATORY creator Genndy Tartakovsky to write and direct a live-action version of the anime classic ASTROBOY, reports VARIETY. The long in-development picture will be produced by Don Murphy of Angryfilms, and Lisa Henson and Kristine Belson of Jim Henson Pictures.

The feature started out as a live-action project in 1997, but was shelved after Steven Spielberg went into production on A.I., which also featured a robot boy who replaces a dead child. Then the film when into development as a CG animated film to be directed by DINOSAUR helmer Eric Leighton, but that project just churned in development hell. Now the film has been resurrected as a live-action film again with Tartakovsky heading up the project.

ASTROBOY was created by the father of Japanese animation Osamu Tezuka and was the first anime TV series to come to the U.S. The cult classic tale follows a scientist who builds a robot replacement for his dead son.