TOKYO -- Toshiaki Karasawa will topline Toho's sci-fi trilogy "20th Century Boy."
The trilogy's budget is 6 billion yen ($57 million), with shoots skedded for seven countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Thailand and China. Produced by Nobuyuki Iinuma, Toho will release the first pic Aug. 30.
The trilogy is based on a hit comic by Naoki Urasawa that ran in Big Comic Spirits magazine from 1999 to 2006 and has sold 20 million copies in paperback.
Pic is about a store manager (Karasawa) who wrote a prediction about the end of the world when he was a teenager, which seems to be coming true. Also starring in the pics are Etsushi Toyokawa and Takiko Tokiwa.
The role is Karasawa's first star turn in a pic in five years, though he is a frequent presence in TV drama, including the 2007 hit Fuji TV series "Galileo."
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