Deadline: Independent Studio eOne to Produce Live-Action Black Jack TV Series
Site: The Ring/The Grudge's Taka Ichise, Doug Davison to executive produce

The Deadline film website reported on Thursday that the Los Angeles/Toronto-based independent studio Entertainment One (eOne) has acquired worldwide rights to a television series based on Osamu Tezuka's 'Black Jack' medical suspense manga.

According to Deadline, Taka Ichise and Doug Davison, who worked together on both 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge', will executive produce the series alongside Dave Brown and Zadoc Angell of Artist International. Michael Rosenberg, Jen Chambers, and Adam Blumberg will oversee the show at eOn.

eOne currently produces the 'Rookie Blue' television series and the studio also distributes 'The Walking Dead' television series.

Tezuka's manga revolves around a gifted maverick doctor who treats patients at the edge of society without regard for rules. The original manga ran in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion magazine in Japan from 1973 to 1979, with occasional one-shot installments up until 1983. Vertical has published the entire run of the series in North America in 17 volumes.

The manga has been been adapted numerous times in animation and live-action formats for television, film, home video, and even Internet distribution.

Source: ANN