‘Attack on Titan’ Live-Action Movie Hires ‘IT’ Director Andy Muschietti

Attack on Titan is one of the most popular anime and manga series out today, and Warner Bros. will be producing a live-action adaptation of the series. While that might scare some, the film will be in the hands of someone who understands the right way to scare.

Variety reports that the Director of IT, Andy Muschietti, will be tackling the live-action Attack on Titan as his next project.

Kodansha and Warner Bros. have finalized a deal setting Muschietti as the director of the new live-action adaptation. While this is a big deal for fans in the West, the series has had several live-action takes before with two films releasing in Japan back in 2015, as directed by Shinji Higuchi.

The new adaptation will be produced by David Heyman (Harry Potter), Masi Oka (Mega Man), and Barbara Muschietti (It), and if the new adaptation has as much success as Muschietti’s previous work, then anime fans have no need to worry.

Muschietti’s take on Stephen King’s classic horror novel It debuted in 2017 and grossed over $700 million USD worldwide. It was so successful, in fact, that production on the sequel IT: Chapter Two is already underway for a September 2019 release.

IT: Chapter Two picks up several decades after the events of the first film, with the Losers’ Club now all grown up. One of the losers who stayed in Derry begins to notice a resurgence in the strange murders around town, realizing that Pennywise has returned after his hibernation. To get themselves trained and ready for the battle ahead, the adult Losers must visit key places in town to spark faded memories of when they were kids – all before Pennywise gets to them first.

As for Attack on Titan, it was originally created by Hajime Isayama for Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009. The series has since been collected into 23 volumes as of 2017, and it’s set in a world where the last remnants of humanity live within a walled city in order to escape the danger of the Titans, a race of giants monsters that eats humans. The lead character, Eren Yeager, ends up joining the military with his two childhood friends Mikasa and Armin after the Titans break through the wall and attack his hometown.

Now Eren, Mikasa, and Armin must survive in a world where they not only have the Titans to fear, but the very humans they are trying to save. You can currently find the series streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Saturday nights on Adult Swim’s Toonami block.

via Variety