International Japan

[Aaron Gerow]

Two bits of international film news involving Japan:

1) Sony Pictures announced that they have acquired the rights to 
distribute _Godzilla 2000: Millenium_ in the US.  Sony had acquired the 
rights to previous 1990s Godzillas, but this will be the first one it 
will actually theatrically release (in summer).  It also secured TV and 
video rights for North and South America.

The Variety story said "The picture recently opened to record-breaking 
box office numbers in Japan."  Eh?  Did I miss something?

2) Warner Brothers has announced that the first film it will make in a 
Japanese-based joint venture with Nippon TV and Toshiba called Towani is 
_Sakuya_, an sfx fantasy period tale about a "teen-aged samurai girl."  
The film will star Ando Nozomi (according to Variety, "one of Japan's top 
young actresses"--Eh? Did I miss something?), and directed by sfx man 
Haraguchi Tomoo.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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