It’s probably one of the wackiest premises I’ve ever heard: An alien octopus creature who nearly destroys the moon forming a crescent shape, moonlights as a beloved junior high school teacher on Earth whose syllabus includes training his misfit students to become uniquely skilled killers while the government offers top dollar to the student who can kill it before it destroys Earth in one year. Then again, I never read the manga, so this is new to me, although clearly there is a demand for a live-action feature adaptation this time around. And now, the creativity to sell this story accordingly falls on Toho Co. Ltd. who will be packaging it next year in the form of the comedic action sci-fi adventure, Assassination Classroom.
Filming began on Sunday with boyband singer Yamada Ryosuke making his big screen debut as Nagisa Shiota, the strongest assassin in the class, along with actor Shiina Kippei co-starring as Ministry of Defence agent Tadaomi Karasuma moonlighting as a teacher at the school; Suda Masaki, Yamamoto Maika, Taketomi Seika, Yuuki Mio and Uehara Miku round out the cast while an announcement on who will voice perform the CG-rendered alien is still pending.
Wild 7 helmer Hasumi Eiichiro is directing the live-action iteration with a screenplay by Kanazawa Tatsuya, based on author Matsui Yusei’s on-going 2012 publication. Filming is expected to wrap in October while North American publisher Viz Media will forward the manga in December. Assassination Classroom will also get its day as an animated series for Japanese households in January 2015 before the release of its live-action counterpart in March.
Stay tuned for more info!
H/T: Filmbiz Asia, ANN