Though Astro Boy‘s 2009 animated adaptation didn’t create a new fanbase, the franchise remains popular. Now the titular character will get another opportunity to have that new fan base with the upcoming live-action adaptation from Animal Logic, the same studio that gave us the 2014 hit The LEGO Movie.

They will be teaming up with Japan’s Tezuka Productions for the project. Hit the jump for more.

Astro Boy
Directed by David Bowers
Featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore
Written by David Bowers and Timothy Harris
Release Date: October 23, 2009

I learned several things Saturday morning when I watched Astro Boy. For one thing, when watching a cartoon movie, one should expect a sea of crying, whispering, and gurgling children no matter what time the movie starts. Another thing I learned, and this one is pretty important for me, is that no matter how old I get, it is nice to know that I still can be affected by a cartoon that has heart.

Astro Boy, based on the popular Japanese anime Mighty Atom, tells the tale of Tobie Tenama (Freddie Highmore). Tobie is caught in a middle of dangerous science experiment conducted by his father Dr. Bill Tenama (Nicolas Cage) and is killed instantly. Dr. Tenama is devastated and in his sorrow, he creates an exact robotic copy of his boy. Thus, Astro Boy is born.

Now a fair warning to those who are familiar with the anime: I had no prior knowledge of the anime before I stepped into the movie. After watching the movie though, I did Google it and discovered that, despite some tweaks to the characters involved and some additional supporting characters, the story is a pretty faithful retelling of the Japanese Anime.

UPDATED: New poster here at right (click for larger, full view; new HD trailer here below, along with updated synopsis).

Astro Boy full-length CGI animated movie, have October 23, 2009 as the official release. YIPPEE!!

Imagi, the grunt behind this fantastical graphical wonderment, have recently posted a few more snapshots of what we can expect here and there are now two trailers and the original teaser showing off some incredible CGI magic.

Do not doubt for one second that the depth and darkness of the original Astro Boy — created by the unquestioned God and creator of Manga, Osamu Tezuka — will not be nipped and tucked for the family friendly demographic that the trailers seem to be aiming for.

So geeks, quite a while ago now I wrote an enormous piece about Tezuka’s Astro Boy, his cartoonical history and his place amongst the greats within the birth of Manga.

I know that October 2009 is still a considerable distance for people who have not yet mastered the traversing of parallel universes in order to cheat time, but the trailer recently appeared on astroboy-themovie.com and I am SUPER STOKED!

Watch the teaser trailer here below and check out the phenomenal action that IMAGI have, once again, masterfully employed. And check out the voice talent — Nicolas Cage, Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Donald Sutherland, Matt Lucas!!!

IMAGI are the tech gurus behind the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Digitization. Say what you will about the plot, the apparent lack of zaniness we are used to with the TMNT crew, but can you fault the graphics? Exactly. IMAGI are working on some other pretty sweet projects, the one that really has me going — aside from Astro Boy – is Gatchaman.

Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Heroes) has been cast in Warner Bros. upcoming CG-animated movie adaptation, Astro Boy.

The storyline runs along the same vein as Pinocchio and Edward Scissorhands where a boy is created; in this case the boy is created by a scientist to replace a son that he lost. This doesn’t work out so well and Astroboy goes off on an adventure looking for people to like him. On his journey, he discovers his great powers and becomes a hero that has to return home to save Metro City and re-unite with the scientist that created and rejected him.

Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, and Freddie Highmore are all set to lend their voices to the movie as well.