eOne Picks Up Manga 'Black Jack' For TV Series

EXCLUSIVE: Black Jack is coming to a TV near you. Entertainment One has acquired the worldwide rights to a television series based on the popular Japanese manga. The LA/Toronto-based indie studio, that produces ABC’s Rookie Blue and distributes AMC’s The Walking Dead, plans a possible live action series of the classic 1970/80s comic by Osamu Tezuka. Taka Ichise and Doug Davison, who worked together on Western adaptations of the Japanese movies The Ring and The Grudge, will executive produce the series for eOne. Dave Brown and Zadoc Angell of Artist International, who packaged the project, will also executive produce.  Michael Rosenberg, Jen Chambers and Adam Blumberg will oversee the show on behalf of the indie studio. Since its first appearance in Japan in 1973, the Black Jack series has followed the adventures of its doctor/detective title character against terrorists and a global conspiracy. The Black Jack manga comics have sold over 50 million copies in Japan and are a cult hit around the world with a translated version available in the U.S. Tezuka is also known for his other characters of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. There was an animated Japanese Black Jack TV series in 2004, as well as a Black Jack 21 spin-off in 2008. A first animated Black Jack film came out in 1996 and Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness was released in Japan in late 2005. Marty Scott & Toni Kotite brought the Black Jack spec pitch to eOne.

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