Cameras are already rolling for the live-action movie adaptation of Yamazaki Mari’s “Thermae Romae” manga, but the main cast has just been revealed. Abe Hiroshi (46) will star, while Ueto Aya (25) will play the female lead.
The manga, which won the Manga Taisho and a Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize last year, is a comedy about Lucius (Abe), an ancient Roman bath house architect who travels through time to modern Japan and finds inspiration in its bath houses. Ueto will play the part of Mami, a young Japanese woman aiming to become a manga artist.
The film is being directed by Takeuchi Hideki, who handled the live-action “Nodame Cantabile” series and other dramas such as “Densha Otoko.” The screenplay was written by Muto Shogo, who also worked on “Densha Otoko,” as well as the “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e” drama and the “Crows ZERO” movies.
Filming started in Rome on March 14 and is expected to finish in early May. Theatrical release is planned for 2012.
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Ueto Aya and Abe Hiroshi in live action movie Thermae Romae
Kamis, 28 April 2011 | Label: Abe Hiroshi, Aya Ueto
Idol group AKB48 reached half a million units sold with their best album “Kamikyokutachi” this week, after almost an entire year. Originally released on April 7, 2010, the album sold approximately 2,000 copies this week, pushing its total to 501,000. Although the group has had two million-selling singles in recent months (“Beginner” and “Sakura no Ki ni Narou”), “Kamikyokutachi” is their first album to hit the half-million mark.
In fact, the last female group to sell 500,000 copies of an album was Destiny’s Child, who did it with “#1′s” in 2006 (592,000 in current total sales). Not counting overseas artists, the last female group was Morning Musume with “4th Ikimasshoi!” in 2002 (515,000 in current total sales).
AKB48 is expected to outdo “Kamikyokutachi” with their first original album, “Koko ni Ita Koto,” which was previously scheduled for release on April 6 but is being delayed due to the effects of the March 11 earthquake. No new release date has been decided yet.
Meanwhile, AKB48, their related subgroups, and member Itano Tomomi (as a solo artist) experienced a small boost with their singles this week. Currently, there 12 AKB48-related singles in the Top 100.
Source:
Oricon
Rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel announced that they will donate all of the revenue from their two 20th anniversary concerts to the Tohoku earthquake relief efforts.
L’Arc~en~Ciel has two scheduled concerts at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo on May 28 and 29. In an announcement on their official website on Tuesday, the members and staff revealed that they will direct all of the concert revenue towards rebuilding in the earthquake-stricken areas.
The staff will also be taking extra measures to address safety and power usage concerns during the concerts.
Source:
Natalie
Kanjani8 will release three new singles in the next three months, it has been learned. The first will be the single “T.W.L / Yellow Pansy Street,” scheduled for April 20.
“T.W.L” are “Yellow Pansy Street” are theme songs for the “Crayon Shin-chan” anime series and the upcoming “Crayon Shin-chan” movie, respectively. The single will have two limited editions, each with a bonus DVD that contains the music video for one of the songs and making-of footage. A regular edition will also be released.
Then on May 11, Kanjani8 will release “My Home,” the theme song to Nishikido Ryo’s drama series “Inu wo Kau to Iu Koto ~Sky to Wagaya no 180 Nichi~” (starting in April). On June 8, they will follow up with “365 Nichi Kazoku,” the theme song to Horikita Maki’s drama series “Umareru” that also features Okura Tadayoshi (starting on April 22).
It was also announced that the delayed “KANJANI∞ LIVE TOUR 2010→2011 8UPPERS” live DVD has a new release date. It was originally planned for March 30, but it will now go on sale on April 13.
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Koyama Chuya’s award-winning manga “Uchuu Kyoudai” is getting a live-action movie adaptation, it has been announced. Oguri Shun (28) and Okada Masaki (21) will co-star as brothers.
The story revolves around two brothers named Mutta (Oguri) and Hibito (Okada) who made a promise as kids to become astronauts and travel to outer space. The older brother Mutta ignores the promise and grows up to become an engineer, while the younger brother Hibito actually becomes an astronaut. One day, after Mutta loses his job, a message from Hibito reignites his motivation to keep their promise.
Details such as the film’s release date have not yet been announced.
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Matsuura Aya (24) is starring in a drama special called “Sakura to Satsuki,” scheduled to air late at night on April 1 on the local Kansai station ABC TV.
The drama was shot in the Kansai area and features an all-Kansai cast. Matsuura – who is originally from Himeji, Hyogo – will play a truck driver and former yankee named Sakura, speaking in Banshu-ben (a regional dialect of Kansai-ben). Trouble arises when she finds out that her good friend and former co-worker Satsuki (Hamaguchi Junko) is engaged to her ex-boyfriend Yuji (Hashimoto Jun).
The cast is rounded out by comedian Kobayashi Kotaro (of Choplin), Ina Kenji, Tokuda Naomi, and Oura Ai.
Matsuura will also sing in Banshu-ben for the theme song, titled “Futari Osaka,” which she wrote specifically for the show.
The official website has a trailer and will be updated with 5 “spin-off drama” episodes. Viewers can put together the Japanese characters shown at the end of each episode to form a keyword, qualifying them to enter in a lottery to win one of five 10,000 yen gift certificates. Those episodes are planned to start on the morning of March 25.
Singer-songwriter Kawashima Ai (25) is currently touring around western Japan, raising funds for the earthquake relief efforts with a series of street performances. Counting her latest performance in Kobe on Sunday, she has so far raised close to 885,000 yen.
Kawashima started in Hiroshima on March 17 and has done a total of six street performances so far. For the Kobe performance, she sang three songs in front of a crowd of 350 people, including the song “Daijoubu da yo.” Because Kobe was hit the hardest by the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, she appealed to the crowd by asking them to empathize with the pain of the current earthquake victims in the Tohoku region.
After her performance, she asked for donations, even as little as 1 yen. She also raised funds by selling her CDs, letting buyers set their own price, as long as it was at least 300 yen. In Kobe, she collected almost 150,000 yen. She performed again the same day in Kawanishi, Hyogo, and raised another 220,000 yen.
