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Live-Action Director Speaks About Fullmetal Alchemist Adaptation

Live-Action Director Speaks About Fullmetal Alchemist Adaptation

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It seems all the popular anime titles are being converted into live-action films, Ghost in the Shell and Rurouni Kenshin among them. Love or loath this trend, it’s always good to get a bit more information on the direction the director is taking; from the horse’s mouth as it were.

The director of the upcoming live-action Fullmetal Alchemist, Fumihiko Sori, has spoken to Japanese news source Oricon (thankfully translated by Anime News Network) about how he plans to make protagonist Edward twenty years old, which is five years older than in the manga, and has cast Japanese actor Ryosuke Yamada in the role. In the interview, he expresses how important this project is to him:

“It is my dearest wish to turn this wonderful story into a film…and it is not an exaggeration to say that I am living for this reason”.

For those unfamiliar with the classic Hiromu Arakawa manga, it centres around Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse who having tried to resurrect their dead mother through Alchemy have had a serious accident, leaving Edward injured and Alphonse without his body.

Edward being the elder sacrifices his soul in order to save Alphonse’s soul in the only way he can; through attaching it to a large metal body. Due to the law of equivalent exchange he loses his own arm, later replaced with a metal arm, giving him his nickname. Alchemy is not unknown in this universe, but it is a science usually legally observed in an official capacity by State Alchemists working for the government. That said, this case is unusual because as the anime explains, “It is impossible to create something out of nothing”, and in this alternative Edwardian-era world, human transmutation is forbidden. Also unusual is Edward’s age, as in the original he is only 15, and becomes the youngest State Alchemist.
Sori hopes to begin filming in Italy from June to August. Comic Book Resources reports that the film will “rely heavily on CGI to create elements such as Alphose’s armour”.

In the meantime, fans can now catch Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Netflix.

Words by Niamh Ennis

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