Keep on creepin’

I’d been wondering when there’d be a story like this one from Variety. There’s been lots of talk about the enduring profitability of super-hero movies (even bad ones) and an increasing occurrence of adaptations of lower profile titles (with concomitant sales boosts for the collections), but what about new movie adaptations of manga titles? Several are apparently in development:

“The tipping point could be ‘Priest,’ based on a popular manhwa (Korean comicbook) about an immortal priest battling demons in the Wild West. Screen Gems‘ live-action version of the popular Tokyopop title is being produced by Sam Raimi‘s Ghost House and starts shooting Oct. 1 with ‘Amityville Horror’ helmer Andrew Douglas.”

They also talk about Neon Genesis Evangelion’s cautious march to the cinema, though they don’t delve into troubles with the manga line at ADV. There are lots of interesting tidbits at the link about some very popular books.

Over at the Japan Times (free registration required), there’s a look at global manga. Tokyopop’s Stuart Levy weighs in:

“‘Ultimately, for manga to really become a mainstream part of global culture, there needs to be local creation,’ Levy declared in an e-mail interview. ‘To me, that would be the epitome of success for Japan — to have exported a piece of global culture that sticks. We still have a while to show that this is possible — the Japanese creators are truly senpai [mentors] to a young generation of global creators, and we want to encourage them to help nurture and train their international kohai [proteges].’”