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Column by Scott Green

IMAGI Animation Studios has announced that the company has agreed with Warner Bros. Pictures, The Weinstein Company upon principal terms for the worldwide distribution of the feature films Gatchaman and Astro Boy. The new pact builds on the success of TMNT, IMAGI's first theatrical motion picture, also distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Weinstein Company. TMNT opened in March 2007 at the top of the U.S. box office.

Gatchaman, scheduled for release in early 2009, originated in Japan in the early 1970s as the television series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Aired in the U.S. as Battle of the Planets and G- Force, it soon became a widely popular syndicated TV series.

Featuring some of the most ambitious action sequences ever seen in animation, Gatchaman is set in a future world grappling with environmental and technological issues. The story focuses on five reluctant heroes whose remarkable genetic code makes them Earth's only hope of defeating extra- terrestrial invaders. Kevin Munroe (TMNT) is the director, with Lynne Southerland producing.

Slated for release later in 2009, Astro Boy was created by the “god of manga,” Japan's Osamu Tezuka, in the early 1950s. The animated television series first aired in 1963 in Japan and found great acclaim and success around the world. In the U.S., it quickly became a top syndicated children's show. The iconic character's fame grew in the 1980s and 2003 with two new Astro Boy TV series attracting new generations of fans.

Astro Boy tells the story of a powerful robot boy created by a brilliant scientist in the image of the son he has lost. Our hero journeys to find acceptance in the human world, and ultimately discovers true friendship as he uses his incredible powers to help others and save Metro City from destruction. Colin Brady (Toy Story 2, Everyone's Hero) directs, and Maryann Garger is the producer.

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