Justin Lim will be directing the One Punch Man live-action film adaptation, an exclusive report from Deadline stated. The American-Taiwanese director had previously worked on several Fast & Furious titles, including The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6.
According to the exclusive report, Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner will work on the live-action film’s screenplay. Avi Arad and Ari Arad of Arad Productions are producing the film, while Sony Pictures has acquired the film rights from Shueisha.
Production for the movie will begin by year’s end, as Lin will be working closely with Rosenberg and Pinkner on a rewrite of the script. This marks Lin’s new work as he recently dropped out of the Fast X movie production, citing creative differences that had to do with star Vin Diesel’s system of script rewrites.
One Punch Man is based on a superhero franchise created by Japanese artist ONE. It started off as a webcomic series in 2009 before receiving a digital manga remake in 2012. It was then serialized in Shueisha’s Tonari no Young Jump magazine and was illustrated by Yusuke Murata. Viz Media has licensed the manga series in English for North America.
An anime adaptation of the series was animated by studio Madhouse and aired from October to December 2015. A second season aired from April to June 2019. It is currently available to stream on Crunchyroll. The streaming service describes the plot as:
Saitama started out being a hero just for fun. After three years of “special” training, he became so powerful that he can defeat opponents with a single punch. Now, alongside Genos, his faithful cyborg disciple, Saitama is ready to begin his official duties as a professional hero working with the Hero Association. However, the frequency of monster appearances is surging and it increasingly appears as if the Great Seer Madame Shibabawa’s prediction about the Earth’s doom is coming true. In the midst of this crisis, the “hero hunter” Garou makes his own appearance.
Source: Deadline
© ONE, Yusuke Murata / Shueisha