News

Live-Action Attack on Titan/Subaru Forester Collaboration Ad Aired

The Subaru Forester commercial created in collaboration with next year's live-action Attack on Titan film ran on Friday during the Kinyōbi Road Show! (Friday Road Show!) movie airing on the Nihon TV channel. The commercial is set in the mountainous region of Wall Maria, and it boasts that the Forester is an "omnidirectional SUV against attacks."

Shinji Higuchi, the 48-year-old director of the live-action Attack on Titan film and The Floating Castle (Nobō no Shiro), also worked on the commercial. The commercial features three Titan giants, including one regular Titan and one female Titan played by stunt people and enhanced with computer graphics. It took four hours to apply the female Titan's makeup.

In addition, the commercial filmed a model of a colossal Titan's upper body. The model was about two meters (about six feet) tall and required seven people to operate.

Principal photography on the live-action film itself has yet to begin, and the staff has not decided if the Titans in the film will appear as they do in the commercial. Still, Higuchi was grateful for this "welcome opportunity" to create a preview of what is to come.

Higuchi is scheduled to begin shooting TOHO's film this summer. He worked as a storyboarder for the Evangelion television series and the three reboot films, and he served as assistant director on Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise. He has also served as the special effects director for the Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera 2: Advent of Legion, and Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys films.

Yuusuke Watanabe (Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, live-action Gantz, Gantz II: Perfect Answer, 20th Century Boys, Gatchaman) is writing the script. Film critic Tomohiro Machiyama, who is friends with original Attack on Titan manga creator Hajime Isayama, is also working on the scripts together with Isayama and Watanabe. Isayama himself has been present at business meetings for the film and has offered ideas on the scripts and characters.

The manga has has inspired four spinoff manga, and a 25-episode television anime version aired last year. Isayama launched the series in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009.