Category: Visual Effects

New Line Cinema has secured the feature film rights to MONSTER, Naoki Urasawas best-selling Japanese manga series, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Trilogy Ent.s Neil Kaplan, Pen Densham and John Watson will produce. The psychological thriller tells the tale of a young doctor who saves the life of a little boy only to find out years later that the boy was a brilliant killer. MONSTER has already been adapted into an animated TV series and spawned an 18-volume manga series, which have sold more than 25 million copies in Japan, and has a strong following in Asia and Europe.

Comicbook writer Jeph Loeb has been hired to adapt Will Eisners THE SPIRIT for the big screen, reports VARIETY. Odd Lot's Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete will produce, along with Batfilm's Michael Uslan. Exec producers are Benjamin Melniker and Steve Maier with co-producers being F.J. DeSanto and Linda McDonough.

The story follows a presumed dead masked detective who uses his questionable existence as an advantage in fighting crime in Central City.

Majesco announced it has secured the worldwide rights to publish AEON FLUX for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The game is scheduled to coincide with the theatrical release. Majesco's AEON FLUX ties together the animated series, which ran on MTV from 1992-1997, and the motion picture, which is slated for release in fall 2005.

Fox 2000 Pictures is in final discussions with the Warner Bros.-based director Alfonso Cuaron (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) to replace M. Night Night Shyamalan as the director of LIFE OF PI, reports VARIETY.

Fox is moving to Cuaron to handle the adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning bestseller by Yann Martel, because it is unwilling to wait a year and a half for Shyamalan to finish his next film LADY IN THE WATER at Warner Bros. Because Cuaron has a contract with Warner, Fox 2000 will have to hammer out a split rights deal with WB.

THE X-FILES star David Duchovny is set to star in the upcoming sci-fi feature PARALLEL, reports SCI FI WIRE. The film was written and will be directed by first-timer Josh Boone.

"It's a very, very interesting, very well-written sci-fi thriller, to throw a couple of genres at you," Duchovny said in an interview. "That's getting closer to becoming a reality to shoot."

Kristen Bell (TV's VERONICA MARS) and newcomer Steve Talley will star in long in development remake of Japanese supernatural horror film KAIRO titled PULSE, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Making his feature debut will be commercial director Jim Sonzero. The film will be produced by Neo Art & Logics Mike Leahy and Joel Soisson. Production is set to begin early this summer in Romania. The story centers on a website run by an evil force whose takes control of web surfers lives. Wes Craven was originally attached to helm the project.

CHARMED producer Brad Kern has written and will oversee an untitled pilot for The WB! centering around a mermaid, according to SCI FI WIRE.

"The mermaid is being played by a fresh new face that we've plucked out of Sydney, Australia," Kern said in an interview. "We were casting literally around the world looking for our mermaid. We looked in London and New York and New Zealand, Hollywood, Florida, Melbourne and Sydney."