October 28^th, 2004 (11:44am) - Koei Co, Ltd. (Koei), Kou Shibusawa Production and Kurosawa Production have joined forces to develop an original film called Oni (working title), and to develop a next-generation videogame based on film.

Oni is an action film, based on a script by the late, great director Akira Kurosawa. Amidst the conflict of the Warring Period 16th century Japan, a blonde-haired samurai warrior must discover his own destiny. Themes transcend to other Akira Kurosawa works, such as Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress.

To make the film a reality, his son Hisao Kurosawa and game producer Kou Shibusawa will complete the script. Oni marks the film directorial debut of Hisao Kurosawa, also the film production debut of Kou Shibusawa. The projected film release is in 2006.

Furthermore, registration for general auditions for the male role of Oni, as well as of the main heroine, begins on November 1, 2004.

The three collaborating companies expand the film’s scope into a variety of genres and media, starting with video game development. The videogame based on the film is a historical action title for the next-generation successor to the PlayStation 2 videogame console, currently dubbed the PS3. Koei plan simultaneous theatrical and videogame releases of Oni in 2006.

Koei has all video game development and other second-party licensing rights. The company is posed to release a wide range of products for the film Oni. Starting with videogame development, Koei expands the film’s scope into a variety of genres and media. Although, the company is also developing other media, such as cellular phone content, character merchandise, music, portraits, and books, in anticipating of Oni’s release.

The project - including film production, video game development - has a total production budget of 3 billion yen. Film revenues, video game are projected to be 10 billion yen worldwide.