Bandai Namco-owned Japanese animation series “Tiger & Bunny” has been optioned for adaptation as an English-language, live-action production for the third time.
Independent U.S. production entity SK Global (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Hell or High Water”) announced that it will develop the property as a series in partnership with Bandai Namco Pictures and with M. Raven Metzner (“Iron Fist,” “Sleepy Hollow”) adapting and show-running.
The “Tiger & Bunny” franchise features heroic crime fighters operating in Stern Bild, a fictionalized, near future version of New York City. The franchise was launched in 2011 as both a manga and anime series that played on late night TV in Japan. It quickly gave rise to two feature movies and a stage play in 2012.
SK Global describes the property as “a heartfelt comedy-drama set in a futuristic city where large corporations sponsor professional superheroes, whose own valiant exploits are then broadcast on a popular reality television show, the story centers on old school veteran hero Tiger, who is compelled to partner with an overconfident rookie named Bunny.”
The live action series adaptation will be produced by SK Global, with Metzner executive producing, and Ozaki Masayuki of Bandai Namco Pictures, a producer on the original “Tiger & Bunny” anime series in Japan, also set as executive producer, along with Filosophia CEO Fujimura Tetsu (“Cowboy Bebop,” “Ghost in the Shell”).
The property was previously set up in 2015 at Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and Weed Productions, the firm headed by celebrated screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. The deal also involved ANEW, a company that had backing from the Japanese public and private sectors and sought to accelerate the translation of Japanese IP into Hollywood productions. ANEW collapsed and was sold and Imagine’s option was allowed to lapse.
In May 2018, a deal with Donald Tang’s ill-fated China-U.S. venture Global Road Entertainment was announced, with Ellen Shanman set as the screenwriter. Global Road, the company resulting from the merger of sales, production and finance entity IM Global and U.S. distributor Open Road, collapsed a few months later in August 2018, causing the rights again to revert to Bandai Namco.
“We see this as a strong property for English-language adaptation, in part because of the popularity and awareness that the show already enjoys outside Japan, and partly because of its unique concept,” Fujimura told Variety.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK once ranked “Tiger and Bunny” as the best anime of all time and Netflix is currently enjoying success with the second season of the animated series, which it began carrying from April 2022.
“Both Imagine and Global Road planned to make feature film adaptations. But that was before streaming became so mainstream. Now, SK Global conceives it as a series. Development is under way and it will be pitched to broadcasters and streamers. Netflix could be a candidate, of course, but at the moment nobody knows,” said Fujimura.
