The Hollywood Reporter newspaper's Heat Vision blog reports that the American film studio Warner Brothers "is in the process of securing the movie rights to" Bleach. Director Peter Segal (Get Smart, The Longest Yard, Anger Management) is setting himself up to produce, but not direct. The manga's North American publisher Viz Media and Segal's Callahan Filmworks partner Michael Ewing would also produce the proposed project.
Warner Brothers has already acquired the rights to adapt Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note supernatural suspense manga, which — like Bleach — is published by Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan and by Viz Media in North America. Along with Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company, Warner Brothers is also developing adaptations of Yoshiaki Kawajiri and MADHOUSE's Ninja Scroll action anime film and Katsuhiro Otomo and Kodansha's Akira science-fiction manga. Viz set up an office in Hollywood in 2008 to promote Viz's properties to Hollywood interests.
Warner Brothers has already acquired the rights to adapt Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note supernatural suspense manga, which — like Bleach — is published by Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan and by Viz Media in North America. Along with Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company, Warner Brothers is also developing adaptations of Yoshiaki Kawajiri and MADHOUSE's Ninja Scroll action anime film and Katsuhiro Otomo and Kodansha's Akira science-fiction manga. Viz set up an office in Hollywood in 2008 to promote Viz's properties to Hollywood interests.
