Sony Pictures is working with producers Toei Animation to bring out a live-action Saint Seiya movie under the more commonly used English language name Knights of the Zodiac. The film has Tomasz Baginski directing it, coming from The Witcher. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film has been in development for years with a number of delays but it’s apparently spent a good chunk of 2021 being filmed from the most recent scripts known to be from Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken. The project has been filming in Hungary and Croatia where a number of productions have been set up amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cast includes Mackenyu (the son of Sonny Chiba), Madison Iseman, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Nick Stahl, Diego Tinoco and Mark Dacascos.
Andy Cheng was brought on board for the stunt work, whose work was recently seen as the choreographer for Shang-chi.
Mackenyu is starring as Seiya, a street orphan and the title hero of the franchise. When a mystical energy known as Cosmo awakens in him, Seiya embarks on a journey to conquer the ancient Greek armor of Pegasus and choose his side in a preternatural battle for the fate of Sienna (Iseman), a young girl who struggles to control her godly powers.
Bean plays a mentor named Alman Kiddo, a man who recruits Seiya into the Knights order, which he founded when he discovered the reincarnated goddess. Tinoco is a man hired to kill the vulnerable goddess.
Toei Animation will distribute in Japan with sony Pictures handling elsewhere outside of China and the Middle EAst. No release date has been set yet.
Plot Concept: Warriors known as The Saints gather their powers from the constellations. They are gathered to defend the reincarnated goddess Athena from other gods who intend to take over the Earth.
[Source: THR]
