Here's a teaser poster for Alexandre Aja‘s upcoming live-action adaptation of Cobra: The Space Pirate. The poster was created to promote the sale of the project at the Cannes Film Festival later this month.
Japanese manga/animated Cobra: The Space Pirate, is the child of Terasawa Buichi and was turned into a cartoon series in the 1980s, mostly popular in Asia and Europe.
For those unfamiliar with the character, here's how Wikipedia summarizes the manga:
Johnson, a worker for a futuristic trading company, got woken up on a Sunday morning by his robotic maid, Ben. Ben suggested that Johnson go to the Trip Movie Corporation (T.M. Company), a company that lets its guests experience a dream as if it were real. Johnson asked to be the king of Harlem, surrounded by beautiful women, and commanding a battlestar. In his dream, Johnson as “Cobra” explored space with his partner Lady Armaroid. Cobra wielded the “Psychogun” and fought off monsters from other planets and most of all the Pirate Guild, the leader being Captain Vaiken whom he let loose. Vaiken distributed Cobra's picture to all the other pirates making him a wanted man. When the dream ended a woman asked Johnson how the dream was, Johnson responding, and the woman correcting to the fact it should have been about him being the king of Harlem.
On Johnson's way back home, he crashed into a man speeding in his car. He recognized the man, who looked identical to Captain Vaiken. Johnson started explaining how he looked like Vaiken right in front of him, thus making Vaiken think he knew something about Cobra. Johnson unconsciously lifted his right arm as if he had a gun. Johnson shot a ray out of his hand, killing Vaiken. The shot blew up his arm, revealing the Psycho-gun. Johnson hurried back home, where Ben noticed his arm and Johnson realized that he did not remember anything from the last three years that he had lived in his house. Johnson looked into a mirror, which he turned a nob to reveal a secret room behind it, which he looked inside to see his revolver which he used in his dream. Lady Armaroid came out from hiding within Ben. Johnson started to remember more, and at that moment many people were recruited by the Pirate Guild to come in and kill Johnson. Johnson killed the recruited people and started to remember that he is Cobra and he was wanted by the Pirate Guild and he was sick of fighting them off. In order to get away from them, Cobra surgically altered his face and had his memories erased. Lady Armariod told Cobra that Trip Movie triggered his sub-conscious and instead brought back old memories. Once more, Lady Armaroid and Cobra set off to all the adventures that come forth.
Cobra later meets Jane Royal, one of the Royal sisters, in a bar. Jane Royal teams up with Cobra and Lady to find the other two Royal sisters, whose tattoo maps lead to the greatest treasure in the whole universe.
With lots more work to come: pre-production will begin in earnest this Autumn, shooting will start next Spring and we can expect to see the film in cinemas in 2013.
The budget is currently pegged at around $100 million dollars or more. Currently producer credits run like this: Onyx's Aton Soumache and Dimitri Rassam, and Alexandra Milchan and Gregory Levasseur, and exec produced by Marc Sessego and Andree Cornier.
Soumache said:
“‘Cobra' will be part of a new generation of movies mixing innovative technology and strong storytelling.”
What did you think? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.
