'Fast and Furious' director to helm 'One Punch Man' film adaptation
The film adaptation of One Punch Man has finally found its director.
As reported by Deadline, former Fast X director Justin Lin has been tapped to helm the upcoming live-action film adaptation of the popular manga series for Sony Pictures.
Lin is best known for helming previous film installments in the Fast franchise including The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast Five, Fast and Furious 6, and F9: The Fast Saga.
Lin’s latest directing stint happened weeks after his controversial departure from the franchise’s latest installment. The director reportedly left the project due to creative differences with actor Vin Diesel.
Jumanji: The Next Level and Venom scribes Scott Rosenberg & Jeff Pinkner are reportedly attached to write the script for the upcoming project. Deadline reported that Sony Pictures acquired the film rights to One Punch Man from Shueisha.
Meanwhile, Avi Arad and Ari Arad, whose previous works include the Spider-Man film series, Iron Man, X-Men film series, and Venom, are producing the film for Sony.
Deadline furthered that Lin is also serving as a producer and will work with the writers “on a rewrite with the intention to begin production by year’s end.”
Created by Japanese writer only known as One, the popular manga series made its debut as a webcomic in 2009.
The series follows the story of Saitama, a superhero who can defeat any opponent with a single punch, but grows bored as he seeks a worthy opponent to test the limits of his overwhelming power.
Sheuisha’s Tonari no Young Jump eventually picked up the series in 2012, with illustrations by Yusuke Murata and One.
In 2019, the manga spawned an anime adaptation from Madhouse, which quickly garnered positive reviews from the anime community. The second season, however, received mixed reviews, after the anime series changed its production company.
To date, the beloved manga has a total of 26 volumes with over 30 million copies sold worldwide while the original webcomic has garnered a total of 7.9 million hits.