CPM Acquires Jun Awazu’s Negadon For North American Release
Leading anime distributor Central Park Media Corporation (CPM), in cooperation with CoMix Wave of Japan, is proud to announce CPM’s acquisition of Jun Awazu’s animation masterpiece, Negadon: The Monster from Mars, for exclusive North American distribution. The anime film was directed by Jun Awazu from his original script and rendered in staggeringly realistic, film noir computer graphic style, similar to recent blockbuster hits such as Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow. Negadon pays homage to a wide variety of 1950’s and 60’s Japanese monster movies such as Godzilla, Mothra, and other classics which first brought global attention to Japan’s then-emerging post-war feature film industry. These early special effects monster movies paved the way for the eventual success of the Japanese animation industry, which took a leadership position throughout the world in the 1990’s.
“We are ecstatic to be able to handle Mr. Awazu’s work in North America,” commented Central Park Media’s Vice President of Business Affairs Masumi Homma O’Donnell. “His clarity of story-telling, the unique and dramatic art design, and the overall excitement of the film are what make this an anime masterpiece.”
The world’s first completely computer generated monster movie, Negadon was in production for over three years and required the invention of special rendering algorithms to reproduce a 1950’s style film look.
Released in Japan theatrically in October 2005, Negadon has won the Outstanding Production Award at the 20th Digital Contents Grand Prix and has been named a Jury Recommended Work at the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival.
Negadon will be released theatrically this spring and on home video this summer. Central Park Media will make further announcements at New York Comic-Con at the end of February.