Japanese TV hit "Train Man" finally cracks America
Hit Japanese series "Train Man" will be adapted for American audiences, its producers said Tuesday, reversing a historic trend that has almost always gone in the opposite direction.
The half-hour musical series based on a true story about a nerdy young man who asks for dating advice on an online comic book chatroom, is a cultural phenomenon in Japan.
His agonising over how to talk to a girl he sees on a train has spurred a novel, a manga and a feature film as well as the hugely successful TV series.
Known as "Densha Otoko" in Japan, the American version of "Train Man" will be directed by Adam Shankman of "Hairspray" fame, its producers said at MIPCOM, the world's biggest entertainment showcase at Cannes on the French Riviera.
It is the first time in its 50-year history that Fuji Television, one of the country's biggest networks, has sold a show to the US market.
It managing director Toru Ota said: "No words can express how thrilled I am that the Hollywood remake of our megahit drama has begun. 'Train Man' may have depicted our 'otaku', or anime cartoon nerd, in a comical way but audiences found him authentic and embraced him."
The US version of the series will be written by Phil Rosenthal and Tucker Cawley, who wrote the series "Everybody Loves Raymond".
Executive producer Michael Connolly of Vertigo Entertainment said the show was "really ahead of its time in the way it used a social media platform to tell a Cyrano story."
Meanwhile, British actor Joseph Fiennes announced earlier that he is in talks to make a new TV series drawn from "Cyrano de Bergerac", Edmond Rostand's classic play.
Fiennes would also play the hopelessly romantic French character with an exceedingly long nose.
He said the story's tragedy-tinged wit had universal appeal, comparing it to "Shakespeare in Love", the Oscar-winning movie in which he made his name.
