Stallion's on 'Wicked' kick for pic
Manga
gets H'wood makeover
By PATRICK FRATER
Japanese
manga "Wicked City" is to be retooled
as a live-action English-language pic by Germany's
Stallion Film, with 
"Spawn"
helmer Mark Dippe to direct and co-produce.
Sci-fi
actioner concerns beasts from a parallel dimension
and a secret resistance organization trying
to prevent the apocalypse.
Original
books by Hideyuki Kikuchi, bestsellers in the
early 1980s, were adapted as anime "Yoju
toshi" by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Stallion has
acquired rights, and Dippe and Johnny Hartmann
are penning the screenplay.
With a $50
million-$60 million budget, "Wicked City"
will lense early next year.
Production
is by Stallion partners Oliver Hengst and Elizabeth
Wang-Lee with L.A.-based Convergence Entertainment's
Tim Kwok ("The Medallion").
International
sales are handled by L.A.-based Inferno Distribution,
with which Stallion has a first-look arrangement.
Production coin will come from Inferno and Stallion.
Stallion
and Hengst have been involved with several German
media funds, including IMF and MHF-Academy Film,
and with Intermedia.
Hengst,
whose exec producer credits include "Laws
of Attraction" and "The Whole Ten
Yards," also is co-founder of Kolosseum
Media, which procures film investments and facilitates
international co-productions.
Inferno
is handling Stallion's John Carpenter-helmed
"The 13th Apostle" and "The Good
Night," a comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow
and Penelope Cruz.
Kwok is
exec producer on "Lone Wolf & Cub"
at Paramount and "Clocktower" at indie
shingle the Mayhem Project.
Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com
