The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that a live-action TV adaptation of Ga-Rei-Zero is in the works with Craig Kyle talking about it at Japan Content Showcase today. Kyle is a producer and co-writer on Thor: Ragnarok and runs Yugen Entertainment with Tim Connors. He’s developing the series based on the work by Hajime Segawa that has seen anime adaptation that Funimation licensed and released previously. The basics for a pilot and overall series bible are being established that indicates a multi-season plan in order to provide internal logic and consistency.
“What it has more than anything is wonderful, wonderful characters,” Kyle said. “That’s the one component, above all else, that will guarantee a success if handled properly by those you entrust with those characters and the IP. Everyone who wants the next Game of Thrones, I will make the bold statement that Ga-Rei has that potential.”
“I left Marvel with all my friends intact … I wanted to touch far more worlds than the ones I had been exposed to for 14 years,” Kyle told the crowd about why he founded Yugen. “The best place to find those great stories is here. … [Japan has] a treasure trove of material that you can pull from.”
“The Japanese stories and characters that have appeared since before I was a kid have far exceeded those that we have done in the States. When it comes to gender, the diversity, on all levels fearless choices are made. … [The characters have] so many tremendous shades of emotional and sexual and personal gray. They’re just bold.”
Check out more of the piece with Kyle as he talks about how Japanese content holders should pick who they work with and about how Ghost in the Shell was adapted.
Check out our review of the series here.
Plot concept: Kagura and Yomi may look like ordinary school girls as they walk the streets of Tokyo clad in short skirts and knee-high socks, but they’re the heroes you scream for when monsters creep out of the darkness. These sword-toting sisters are part of an elite counterattack unit that specializes in suppressing outbreaks of supernatural activity. They train together, live together, eat together, and spend their nights disemboweling demons with sacred blades together.
Tragedy strikes when Yomi is possessed by a dark spirit and Kagura must choose between raising her weapon against the eerily familiar face of ultimate evil or watching her flesh and blood slaughter innocent citizens. In a life-or-death battle that pits sister against sister, survival may be the greatest agony of all.
