Sony Adapting Hit Manga Series Gantz into Film With Julius Avery to Helm

November 2, 2021

According to Deadline, Sony Pictures is currently in the process of developing a live-action film adaptation of Gantz, based on the popular manga series of the same name. Even though the project is still in early development, the studio has already tapped Australian filmmaker Julius Avery to direct the film.

Avery is best known for his 2018 action horror film Overlord which starred Wyatt Russell, and Jovan Adepo. In addition to the Gantz film, his next directorial projects are Universal Pictures’ Van Helsing movie from producer James Wan, and the superhero film Samaritan starring Sylvester Stallone.

First published in 2000, Gantz was written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. It centers around teenagers Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, who after dying from a train accident, have found themselves transported in an empty Tokyo apartment along with other recently dead people. Soon after, they learned that they’ve been enlisted to become a part of a semi-posthumous game where they’re forced to hunt down and kill aliens armed to the teeth with all sorts of futuristic weapons and gadgets.

The film adaptation will be written by Marc Guggenheim, with Temple Hill to produce. This marks Sony’s latest effort into adapting hit Japanese mangas after recently wrapping up production on the Brad Pitt-led Bullet Train, which is based on Kotaro Isaka’s Maria Beetle.

The original run of Gantz lasted from 2000-2013 which consisted of 37 volumes. Before Sony’s upcoming adaptation, the manga was first adapted into a two-season anime and had also received two live-action Japanese films in 2011.