Tiger & Bunny Gets Live-Action Film Adaption

NEW YORK/TOKYO: All Nippon Entertainment Works (ANEW) is teaming up with Imagine Entertainment and Bandai Namco Pictures to develop and produce the English-language live-action feature film Tiger & Bunny, based on the Japanese anime series and feature films.

Tiger & Bunny sees the title characters work together to fight crime and save lives as professional superheroes. The film adaptation is being produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, ANEW’s Sandy Climan and Annmarie Bailey, and Masayuki Ozaki on behalf of Bandai Namco Pictures, a subsidiary of Japanese anime studio Sunrise. Ozaki produced the original Japanese Tiger & Bunny brand under the Sunrise banner. Imagine’s president Erica Huggins will oversee the new film.

Bailey said, “I was immediately drawn to Tiger & Bunny when I first encountered the series in Japan—from the compelling story lines to the dynamic characters, the concept is a fresh new take on the superhero genre. It was a Herculean team effort, but after actively pursuing the live-action rights, we are honored that the director Keiichi Sato, producer Masayuki Ozaki and the original creators have put their trust in us to share these much-loved characters to a whole new audience.”

“We could not be more excited about producing Tiger & Bunny with Bandai Namco Pictures and ANEW,” said Howard. “When ANEW brought us the project, we fell in love with the concept immediately. It was fresh, a huge success in Japan, and we had never seen a great buddy story bring together so many uniquely compelling elements. Barnaby and Tiger are immensely dynamic characters, with a psychologically complex relationship with one another, and it will be an honor to bring them to the global audience of film lovers.”

“In Mr. Ozaki and the creators of Tiger & Bunny we have found kindred spirits in the world of storytelling,” Grazer added. “Our collaboration with them will make this project richer and stronger as we grow the Tiger & Bunny franchise worldwide.”

Ozaki stated: “Though we secretly hoped to bring Tiger & Bunny to Hollywood one day as a live-action project since the early stages of conceptualizing the original series, we knew it would not be an easy feat as it would depend on finding partners, and many conditions would have to be sorted out before we could agree to move forward. What impressed us most when ANEW approached us was not only the deal terms, but the deep respect and love they showed for our original work. The reason we could overcome the many obstacles we faced over the past few years is owed to Annmarie and the ANEW team’s love for Tiger & Bunny. During the deal talks, our chief focus was to ensure continuing involvement by the original creators to maintain quality, and flexibility, which would allow the original work to continue. We pushed those points strongly because we couldn’t turn our back to our fans. In addition, Imagine Entertainment is a renowned and established global production studio. Our entire team, the director Mr. Sato and myself included, have the utmost respect for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s work. When we met Ron and the Imagine team we could see the creative passion in their eyes and we are confident that we have found the best partners in ANEW and Imagine to reintroduce the Tiger & Bunny franchise to audiences young and old to the world over.”