Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis (2001 - TriStar Pictures, Destination Films, Toho, Tezuka Productions, Madhouse, Kadokawa Video, Emotion, Bandai Visual, New Amsterdam Ent., Romero-Grunwald Prod., Silver Pictures and The Donners' Company)

Rintarô was born on 22 January 1941 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a director, known for Metropolis (2001), Neo Tokyo (1987) and Ninja Scroll (1993).

Henry Selick is a film director, specializing in films with stop-motion animation. He has formal training as an animator.

Selick was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, son of Charles H. Selick and Melanie Molan. He was mostly raised in Rumson, New Jersey. As a child, Selick took up drawing as a hobby. He became fascinated with animation at a young age, after viewing two specific films. One was the silhouette animation feature film "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926) by Lotte Reiniger. It was one of the earliest animated feature films (the first had been released in 1917), the first produced in Europe, and the earliest one that has been preserved. The other film was the live-action film "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), which featured stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen.

Selick started his college studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he studied science. He next studied art in Syracuse University, arts and design in the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, and animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Two of his student films won so-called "Student Academy Awards", awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for promising student films.

In the 1970s, after completing his college studies, Selick was hired by Walt Disney Productions, (the animation studio of the Disney corporation). He started his career there as an in-betweener, generating intermediate images for key frames in animated works. This is typically a low-level position at the animation department and the work goes uncredited.

At Disney, he started working as an animator trainee, one of several trainees under an aging crew of directors and supervisors. His first (uncredited) high-profile works was as part of the animation crew in the feature film "Pete's Dragon" (1977) and the featurette "The Small One" (1978). Among his associates at the time were other animator trainees, such as Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The man mainly responsible for their training was veteran animator Eric Larson (1905-1988), one of "Disney's Nine Old Men" (an old guard of senior animators and directors that had long careers with the studio).

The young animators of the studio, Selick among them, completed a single film, the drama film "The Fox and the Hound" (1981). Then many of them left the studio to pursue careers elsewhere. Selick spend most of the 1980s as a freelancer. He directed animation for television commercials, for products such as the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Ritz Crackers. He also worked as a sequence director or storyboard artist for a number of films, such as "Twice Upon a Time" (1983), "Return to Oz" (1985), "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" (1986). His television work also included some animation work for a television channel called "MTV".

Selick's big break in the animation world came when he was approached by an old acquaintance, director Tim Burton. Burton was producing a stop-motion animation feature film for Disney, but did not have the time to direct it himself, and needed someone to direct and to supervise the developing process. Selick was hired as the director for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), the first full-length, stop-motion feature from a major American studio.

"Nightmare" was a relatively low-budget film, but became a minor box office hit, earning about 76 million dollars at the worldwide box office. It also earned critical acclaim, particularly praise for then-revolutionary visual effects. It earned a number of awards and nominations, including a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and an Annie Award. It was no surprise that Selick would be asked to direct again.

His next film was the novel adaptation "James and the Giant Peach" (1996), based on a work by Roald Dahl. The film combined live-action with stop-motion animation. It was another critical success, but a box office flop. It was overshadowed in the Annie Awards (for animation) by two competitors: "Toy Story" (1995) and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996).

Selick attempted a comeback with a comic book adaptation. He secured the rights to the graphic novel "Dark Town" (1995) by Kaja Blackley. The story was about a comatose cartoonist whose soul ends up in a limbo-like realm called "Dark Town". The original story ended in a cliff-hanger and never received a sequel. Selick and his crew further fleshed out the limbo realm, added new characters, and developed an original ending. The result was the dark fantasy film "Monkeybone" (2001). An ambitious, big-budget film, it turned out to be a box office bomb. It earned about 7.5 million dollars at the worldwide box office, much less than the film's budget.

Selick's next project was developing stop-motion visual effects the live-action film "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), directed by Wes Anderson. The film was an ambitious comedy-drama film, loosely inspired by the life of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997). It under-performed at the box office, and received moderate critical acclaim. The film and its cast were nominated for a number of awards, but failed to win any major awards.

In 2004, Selick was hired as a supervising director by Will Vinton Studios, a minor animation studio that focused on stop-motion animation. In 2005, Will Vinton Studios was replaced by a new studio called "Laika". Selick retained his position. For Laika, Selick developed and directed his first computer-animated short film: "Moongirl" (2005). The premise is that a young boy is transported to the Moon, where he helps a Moongirl repair the Moon.

"Moongirl" turned out to be a critically acclaimed short film and won a number of awards, including an award by the Ottawa International Film Festival. Selick was next hired to write a children's book based on the film, which was released in 2006.

Laika next started work on its first feature film, an adaptation of a novel by Neil Gaiman. Selick was assigned as the director of the film. Selick was reportedly necessary for the company to secure the rights to the novel, because Gaiman happened to be a fan of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and trusted him to adapt his work for film. The film was dark fantasy "Coraline" (2009). It earned about 125 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming the most commercially successful film in Selick's career.

"Coraline" was critically acclaimed winning or receiving nominations for several major awards. It even received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, though it lost to "Up" (2009) by Pete Docter. It served as a comeback for Selick. Selick left Laika shortly after the release of the film.

In 2010, Selick signed a long-term contract with Disney, where he was supposed to create new stop-motion animation films to be released by the company. He formed a new studio called "Cinderbiter Productions" to produce the films. He worked for a number of years on a project called called "ShadeMaker", but this has been in development hell since 2013. Selick is reportedly working on several other projects, but has not released a new feature film following "Coraline".

Kirk Wise was born on 24 August 1963 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is a director, known for Beauty and the Beast (1991), Spirited Away (2001) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

As flamboyant as any character in his movies, Joel Silver can be credited along with Jerry Bruckheimer as practically reinventing the action film genre in the 1980s. Born in New Jersey, he attended the New York University Film School. After college, he worked at Lawrence Gordon Pictures, earning his first onscreen credit as associate producer of The Warriors (1979). He eventually became president of the motion picture division of Gordon Pictures. Together with Gordon, Silver produced 48 Hrs. (1982) and Streets of Fire (1984). In 1983 he formed Silver Pictures and initially set up shop at Universal Pictures to produce Brewster's Millions (1985) before going to Fox and continued producing hit action films such as Commando (1985), the "Lethal Weapon" franchise, the first two films of the "Die Hard" franchise and the three films of "Matrix" franchise of action films. He had then subsequently joined Warner Bros. in 1987 after leaving Fox. Despite these successes, he has hit some rough spots and has been banned from working on several studio lots. He was unable to produce the "48 Hrs" sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990), the third "Die Hard" film, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and the fourth "Matrix" installment The Matrix Resurrections (2021) because of past run-ins with studio executives. Because of his habit of wearing sport shirts and talking loudly and quickly, he has been parodied in several films, even spoofing himself in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) by playing the frustrated cartoon director in the film's opening sequence. In order to perform in that role, he had to use an alias to get onto the Walt Disney lot, and his onscreen credit was not revealed to Disney executives until the very last minute. He had worked in television, setting up his own television branch with his first project Parker Kane (1990), a project that would eventually never made to series, and then worked at HBO for many years, until he found a home at Warner Bros. Television in 1998, where he had developed two UPN shows The Strip (1999) and Freedom (2000) before finding commercial success with the hit Veronica Mars (2004). In 1999, Silver Pictures had teamed up with film director/producer Robert Zemeckis to set up Dark Castle Entertainment to produce genre and horror films with the first film under Dark Castle being House on Haunted Hill (1999). Joel Silver pioneered the practice of shooting action movies in Australia with the "Matrix" films, and has been credited with either inventing or reinventing the careers of Eddie Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Seagal. He was mentioned in Halle Berry's Academy Award acceptance speech. Other credits include non-action pictures, ranging from Xanadu (1980), Weird Science (1985) and Fred Claus (2007) to HBO's long-running TV series, Tales from the Crypt (1989). He had resigned from his founding production company in 2019.

Sam Englebardt is a media and technology investor and content producer who has created, acquired and/or financed a broad range of traditional and digital businesses and numereous films and television shows over the past decade.

Today Englebardt is a co-founder and partner at Galaxy Digital, a leading blockchain and digital assets merchant bank. His responsibilities encompass co-managing the principal investments business and the EOS.io Ecosystem Fund, a $325 million joint venture with Block.one focused on making strategic investments in projects that utilize the EOS.io blockchain software.

Englebardt's involvement with Galaxy Digital reflects his deep interest in the intersection of content, consciousness and exponential technologies. Testimony to this, he was an early investor in Eyefluence, an eye-tracking technology company that was sold to Google and he is an advisor to several startups in the mixed-reality space, including VR company, The Void.

Prior to Galaxy Digital, Englebardt was a managing director and partner at Lambert Media Group (LMG) from 2007-2016, where he sourced and managed a portfolio of media sector private equity investments. He has been a prolific content producer throughout his career and spent three years running LMG portfolio company, Demarest Films. Englebardt's recent live action projects include John Le Carre's "The Night Manager" and "A Most Wanted Man." Before LMG, he was a vice president and financial advisor at Alliance Bernstein.

A licensed attorney in California, Englebardt earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and studied philosophy, political science and economics at Oxford University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, from which he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Shinji Komori is known for Avalon (2001), Steamboy (2004) and Metropolis (2001).

Masao Maruyama was born on 19 June 1941 in Shiogama, Japan. He is a producer, known for Summer Wars (2009), Ninja Scroll (1993) and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000).

Iwao Yamaki is known for Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000), Perfect Blue (1997) and Metropolis (2001).

Richard P. Rubinstein is an established and broadly diversified producer of Feature Films, Event Miniseries, TV movies and anthology formatted television series. Rubinstein is also known for his willingness to take a chance on directors, writers and actors early in their careers.

In 1979, Rubinstein took Laurel Entertainment, the production company that he had founded with director George A. Romero, public. The objective was to raise sufficient capital to allow the company to internally finance development in order to retain a higher degree of creative control and financial participation in the feature film and TV programming that the company created. In 1984, Romero resigned from the company to pursue his creative interests without public company responsibilities. In 1988, with respective shareholder approval, Rubinstein and Aaron Spelling agreed to merge Laurel and Spelling Television as subsidiaries of a new American Stock Exchange listed company, The Spelling Entertainment Group. Under Rubinstein's continued management as CEO, Laurel became the NYC based East Coast development and production arm of the new public company. As part of the same merger, Spelling also acquired Worldvision, a television distributor with a large library of programming.

In 1992, Spelling and its subsidiaries, including Laurel, were acquired by Blockbuster Entertainment and in 1994, Viacom acquired Blockbuster and Laurel became an operating unit of Viacom. In 1995, seeking a small-company working environment, Rubinstein resigned from Laurel/Viacom and founded another NYC based production company, New Amsterdam Entertainment, Inc. More recently in 2008 New Amsterdam announced that the company would develop a new feature film version of Frank Herbert's science fiction classic "Dune" for Paramount Pictures with Peter Berg attached to direct and Rubinstein and Kevin Misher attached to produce.

In 2004, New Amsterdam provided the services of Rubinstein as producer for a remake of the Rubinstein produced 1979 horror film classic, "George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead". The 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake was directed by first-time feature director Zack Snyder and starred Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames and Mekhi Phifer. Distributed by Universal, the remake has grossed in excess of $110M worldwide and was critically honored as an "Official Selection" of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Rubinstein's feature film producer credits also include his 1989 production of Stephen King's "Pet Sematary" (Paramount), based on the novel and screenplay by Stephen King, and directed by second-time feature director Mary Lambert. The $10 million film earned $57 million in domestic box office gross and earned over $120 million worldwide. Other Stephen King based features produced by Rubinstein include "The Night Flier" (New Line, 1998), "Thinner" (Paramount, 1997), and "Creepshow" (Warner Bros., 1982), with a cast that included Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, E.G. Marshall and Ted Danson (before he went on to star in "Cheers"). In 1990, Rubinstein produced "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie" (Paramount) directed by John Harrison in his first feature film assignment. The ensemble cast included Julianne Moore in her first feature film appearance, Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater and Debby Harry. Rubinstein was a producer of several other George A. Romero directed films including "Martin" (Libra Films, 1977) and "Knightriders" (United Artists, 1981), which starred Ed Harris in his first feature leading role.

Under the New Amsterdam banner, Rubinstein's Executive Producer credits for television include the highly rated and critically acclaimed miniseries "Frank Herbert's Dune". Produced in association with Disney the six-hour Emmy-award winning miniseries premiered on the Sci Fi Channel in December 2000 with first-time miniseries writer/director John Harrison choreographing an ensemble cast led by William Hurt and photographed by three-time Academy Award winning Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Emmy-winning "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune" directed by Greg Yaitanes and scripted by John Harrison followed soon after. Adapted from the 2nd and 3rd novels in Frank Herbert's saga and produced in association with Disney and Hallmark, the six-hour TV event was the first high profile major miniseries to be shot with "24P" High Definition digital cameras. The mini premiered in March 2003 on the Sci Fi Channel with Susan Sarandon leading an ensemble cast which included the now well known James McAvoy. ("The Last King of Scotland" and "The Chronicles of Narnia")

Rubinstein's Executive Producer credits for television include Stephen King's "The Stand" (1994) an eight-hour miniseries for ABC (20.3 rating, 30 share) starring Gary Sinise (before "Forest Gump" and "Apollo 13" best supporting actor nominations) and Stephen King's "The Langoliers" (1995) a four-hour ABC miniseries starring Patricia Wettig, Dean Stockwell, Bronson Pinchot and David Morse (19.4 rating/30 share). Both miniseries were the highest rated long form movies on any network in their respective broadcast years. "The Stand" also garnered Mr. Rubinstein and Mr. King nominations for Best Miniseries. Earlier in the 90s Rubinstein Executive Produced "Stephen King's Golden Years," an eight-hour miniseries for CBS which co-starred Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") in her first leading role on television.

Rubinstein Executive Produced, (with Aaron Spelling and David Brown), the hit CBS Miniseries "A Season in Purgatory" (1996), starring Patrick Dempsey and Brian Dennehy based on the Dominick Dunne best seller; "Kiss & Tell" (1996), a two-hour movie for ABC starring Cheryl Ladd; and "Precious Victims" (1993), a two-hour CBS TV movie based on a true crime novel. Rubinstein also Executive Produced (with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) "The Vernon Johns Story," a 1994 two-hour TV movie starring James Earl Jones, which received four Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards and a Christopher Award for "A TV Program Affirming the Highest Values of the Human Spirit." Rubinstein has also served as Executive Producer on two very successful syndicated anthology TV series distributed by Tribune Entertainment, "Tales From The Darkside" (90 episodes) and "Monsters" (72 episodes), with many well known actors in the lead role including Jerry Orbach and Jerry Stiller as well as then up-and-coming talent like Chris Noth ("Law & Order"), Lisa Bonet and Marcia Cross ("Desperate Housewives").

Born in Brooklyn, NYC, Rubinstein received his undergraduate BS. degree from The American University in Washington, D.C. and received his M.B.A. from Columbia University in NYC. He began his film career as a production assistant for a producer of TV commercials, and he received his first credit as Associate Producer of "A Night with Nicol Williamson," a made-for-pay-cable one-hour special produced by Dore Schary. In 1974, Rubinstein independently produced and licensed to the ABC Network a one-hour special profiling O. J. Simpson at the height of his football career. He then produced "The Winners," a syndicated TV series of twelve one-hour biographical profiles of other well-known sports heroes including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mario Andretti, Reggie Jackson, and Franco Harris.

Rubinstein is a member of the Producers Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He is also a Benefactor of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, a former twenty-year member of the National Advisory Board of the Sundance Film Festival and a member of the "Third Decade Council" of the American Film Institute. In addition, he served for six years on the Board of Directors of the New York founding chapter of The Independent Feature Project. Rubinstein is also on the Board of Directors of Chashama, a non-profit, that matches up emerging artists in need of studio and exhibition space with commercial landlords who have short term vacancies to donate. Rubinstein regularly guest lectures about his experience in the entertainment industry. He also developed and co-taught a course in Entrepreneurial Producing for two semesters at the NYU/Stern Graduate School of Business. In September of 2007, Rubinstein became a trustee of The Town Hall, one of New York City's preeminent performance venues.

Mitchell Galin is known for Monsters (1988), Pet Sematary (1989) and Thinner (1996).

George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; by all indications, though, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking "Living Dead" films was born February 4, 1940 ,in New York City to Ann (Dvorsky) and Jorge Romero. His father was born in Spain and raised in Cuba, and his mother was Lithuanian. He grew up in New York until attending the renowned Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

After graduation he began shooting mostly short films and commercials. He and his friends formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960s and they all chipped in roughly $10,000 apiece to produce what became one of the most celebrated American horror films of all time: Night of the Living Dead (1968). Shot in black-and-white on a budget of just over $100,000, Romero's vision, combined with a solid script written by him and his "Image" co-founder John A. Russo (along with what was then considered an excess of gore), enabled the film to earn back far more than what it cost; it became a cult classic by the early 1970s and was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress of the United States in 1999. Romero's next films were a little more low-key but less successful, including The Affair (1971), The Crazies (1973), Season of the Witch (1972) (where he met future wife Christine Forrest) and Martin (1977). Though not as acclaimed as "Night of the Living Dead" or some of his later work, these films had his signature social commentary while dealing with issues--usually horror-related--at the microscopic level. Like almost all of his films, they were shot in, or around, Romero's favorite city of Pittsburgh.

In 1978 he returned to the zombie genre with the one film of his that would top the success of "Night of the Living Dead"--Dawn of the Dead (1978). He managed to divorce the franchise from Image Ten, which screwed up the copyright on the original and allowed the film to enter into public domain, with the result that Romero and his original investors were not entitled to any profits from the film's video releases. Shot in the Monroeville (PA) Mall during late-night hours, the film told the tale of four people who escape a zombie outbreak and lock themselves up inside what they think is paradise before the solitude makes them victims of their own, and a biker gang's, greed. Made on a budget of just $1.5 million, the film earned over $40 million worldwide and was named one of the top cult films by Entertainment Weekly magazine in 2003. It also marked Romero's first work with brilliant make-up and effects artist Tom Savini. After 1978, Romero and Savini teamed up many times. The success of "Dawn of the Dead" led to bigger budgets and better casts for the filmmaker. First was Knightriders (1981), where he first worked with an up-and-coming Ed Harris. Then came perhaps his most Hollywood-like film, Creepshow (1982), which marked the first--but not the last--time Romero adapted a work by famed horror novelist Stephen King. With many major stars and big-studio distribution, it was a moderate success and spawned a sequel, which was also written by Romero.

The decline of Romero's career came in the late 1980s. His last widely-released film was the next "Dead" film, Day of the Dead (1985). Derided by critics, it did not take in much at the box office, either. His latest two efforts were The Dark Half (1993) (another Stephen King adaptation) and Bruiser (2000). Even the Romero-penned/Tom Savini-directed remake of Romero's first film, Night of the Living Dead (1990), was a box-office failure. Pigeon-holed solely as a horror director and with his latest films no longer achieving the success of his earlier "Dead" films, Romero has not worked much since, much to the chagrin of his following. In 2005, 19 years after "Day of the Dead", with major-studio distribution he returned to his most famous series and horror sub-genre it created with Land of the Dead (2005), a further exploration of the destruction of modern society by the undead, that received generally positive reviews. He directed two more "Dead" films, Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009).

George died on July 16, 2017, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was 77.

Peter Grunwald is known for Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Monkey Shines (1988).

Lauren Shuler Donner has, in the past four decades, established herself as one of the most successful and versatile producers in Hollywood. To date, her films have grossed close to $5 billion worldwide. She crossed over to Executive the very successful "Legion" for FX and "The Gifted" for FBC.

Shuler Donner was bound for success from the beginning, as the first feature film she produced was the smash hit comedy, "Mr. Mom," one of the top ten grossing films the year. She then went on to produce "Ladyhawke" starring Matthew Broderick, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer and "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Pretty in Pink," both of which garnered platinum records for their soundtracks. In the early '90s, Shuler Donner produced the box office smash hits "Dave" and "Free Willy," two of the top ten films of 1993. The critically acclaimed "Dave" was nominated for both an Academy Award® (Best Original Screenplay) and a Golden Globe (Best Picture-Comedy). She went on to produce "You've Got Mail," "Any Given Sunday," "Radio Flyer," "3 Fugitives" and the sequel to "Free Willy." As head of The Donners' Company, she has executive-produced "Volcano," "Bulworth," "Just Married" and "Semi-Pro". Shuler Donner's other recent productions include "Timeline" with Paul Walker and Gerard Butler, "Constantine" with Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz, and "She's The Man" with Amanda Bynes. In October 2008, both Shuler Donner and her husband Richard Donner were awarded Stars next to each other on Hollywood Blvd Walk o f Fame. They were also awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Ojai film Festival in November of 2008. She has been recognized for her body of work in 2001 by Premiere magazine with the Producer Icon Award, and was recognized by Daily Variety with a Billion Dollar Producer special issue. In June 2006, she received the prestigious Crystal Award from Women in Film. She and husband, Richard Donner were honored by The American Cancer Society in June of 2006, and by Lupus L.A. in 2008. Shuler Donner has produced every "X-Men" film in the franchise and all the spin off including "Logan" and "Deadpool" and the upcoming "New Mutants". Shuler Donner is a dedicated philanthropist who thrives on giving back to the community. She was on the board of directors for Hollygrove Children's Home until it merged with EMQ in 2006. She has been on the advisory board of Women in Film, the advisory boards of TreePeople and Planned Parenthood and the executive committee of the Producer's Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is serving currently on the advisory board of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, the advisory board of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the board of directors for the Producers Guild of America.

Jim Van Wyck graduated from the University of Oregon with a mathematics degree, and played eight years of professional baseball in the Minnesota Twins organization. He then entered the film industry through the Directors Guild Training Program. His first job was a production assistant on the telefilm "Elvis", starring Kurt Russell, who was his former teammate. He has now executive produced many films, including "Lethal Weapon 4", "Free Willy", and "Conspiracy Theory"; while associate producing such films as "Dick Tracy" and "Murphy's Romance". He currently lives in Newbury Park, California, USA, with his wife and family.

Richard Donner was born on 24 April 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985) and Lethal Weapon (1987). He was married to Lauren Shuler Donner. He died on 5 July 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Katsuhiro Ôtomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation.

In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine Action, Otomo created his first science-fiction work, titled Fireball. Although the manga was never completed, it is regarded as a milestone in Otomo's career as it contained many of the same themes he would explore in his later. In 1982, Otomo made his anime debut, working as character designer for the animated film Harmagedon. The next year, Otomo began work on a manga which would become his most acclaimed and famous work: Akira. It took eight years to complete and would eventually culminate in 2000 pages of artwork. While the serialization of Akira was taking place, Otomo decided to animate it into a feature film, although the manga was yet to be finished. In 1988, the animated film Akira was released.

Otomo became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012, and was awarded the Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government in 2013.

Caroline Thompson was born on 23 April 1956 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Addams Family (1991) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). She is married to Steve Nicolaides. She was previously married to Henry Bromell.

Tezuka Osamu was born on November 3, 1928 in Toyonaka, Japan as the first child of Fumiko & Yutaka Tezuka. At 5, he & his family moved to the village of Kohama in Hyogo prefecture (present day city of Takarazuka). When he was 7, he entered Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka. Due to his diminutive stature, he was bullied a lot in school. His mother was a good story teller & would tell stories to him. His father was a big comic & animated movies fan. Therefore, he would do a private showing of movies he bought at his house. This influence would later inspire him to write story length comics that was as exciting as watching a movie. He drew his first comic when he was in 3rd grade titled Bin Bin Namachan, a story of a bald-headed boy that was modeled after himself. During those days, he read comics such as Norakuro & Nakamura Manga Library. He even drew a story about martians called Kaseijin Kuru! He also invented his famous character Hyotantsugi in a work he titled Fuku-chan to Uotsuri. . Another one of his works called Shina no Yoru caused quite a sensation.

His other love in life was insects. He would roam around the fields to study them & he would draw his own encyclopedia. One day, he found an insect named Osamushi, which resembled his name. Therefore, he adopted Osamushi as his pen name. He started to draw using pen & ink as well as write comics when he was 15. He self-published 13 books that year. In 1945, he entered Osaka University's medical division. The following year, he made his professional debut w/ the comic Maachan no nikki-cho in an Osaka children's newspaper. Later that year, he met Nanama Sakai at the Kansai manga club meeting & was asked to draw a feature length cartoon. W/ Sakai as story writer, he published Shin Takarajima the following year, selling 400,000 copies. He then went on to win 1st place at the YMCA for his piano performance. He was also a member of the university's acting club during & dabbled in school plays. What separated him from artists before him was that his comic had a 3-dimensional feel to his pictures & more lively motion to his characters.

In 1950, he began writing Jungle Taitei, which was published in the magazine Manga Shonen. After graduating from Osaka University the following year, he wrote the pilot episode for Tetsuwan Atom titled Atom Taishi, which was featured in the magazine Shounen. In 1952, he passed the exam to become a practicing physician. Atom Taishi ended in March & is renamed Tetsuwan Atom w/ syndication continuing until March 1968. He was in a dilemma as to which profession he would choose as his career: to be a manga artist or a doctor. He consulted his mother about his career choice & she advised him to choose whichever he loved the most. Encouraged by this, he chose manga.

In 1953, he moved to the now legendary Tokiwaso apartment where many young comic talents from all over Japan lived to start their career. Most of them were not only younger, but considered him as their guru, becoming a mentor. In 1959, he married Etsuko Okada. That same year, Tetsuwan Atom airs on Fuji TV featuring live actors. In 1961, he started his own animation production company called Tezuka Osamu Production Animation Department & beginning work on the pilot of animated version of Tetsuwan Atom. On January 1, 1963 Tetsuwan Atom starts airing on Fuji TV & is broadcasted by NBC as Astro Boy in the U.S. the following year. He followed up w/ the animated version of his comic Big X & W 3. In 1965, he created his 1st color anime Jungle Taitei, later airing in the Americas as Kimba the White Lion. His works from late the 60s such as Magma Taishi & 70s such as Mitsume ga tooru & Black Jack aren't as well known outside Japan, but he continued to draw at a prolific pace during those years. In 1972, due to internal strife, Mushi pro disintegrates. He later created another production company named after himself called Tezuka pro. During the 80s his work load slowly declined & he was more of a cultural icon, becoming a guest on many social events & TV interviews. He was also busy running his production company.

In 1988, he felt pain in his abdomen & underwent surgery. Not knowing this was due to stomach cancer as his his physician chose not to reveal his terminal illness, he was heard saying, "This doctor doesn't understand my question" as he asked about his condition. He passed away on February 9, 1989. Magazine headlines read Manga Taitei iku. Now, he's remembered as the greatest manga artist of all time, single-handedly jump starting both genre of modern day manga & anime with many manga artists were influenced by Tezuka's works. He was also 1 of the most prolific artist in the field w/ over 700 stories spanning over 170,000 pages to his credit . His impact on the entire social culture of Japan's also seen as immeasurable as he influenced so many different areas of art & society through his comics. Never in history has a comic artist influenced the society of a single country the way he did. He'll be remembered as the founding father of modern day manga.

Graeme Revell was born in New Zealand in 1955. He was graduated from The University of Auckland with degrees in economics and politics. He is a classically trained pianist and French horn player. Revell worked for as a regional planner in Australia and Indonesia and as an orderly in an Australian psychiatric hospital. Graeme Revell was a member of SPK, a 70s Industrial music group, for which he played keyboards and percussion. Their single "In Flagrante Delicto" was the basis for his Dead Calm score. This was his first score and won him an Australian Film Industry award. Since then he's done a number of major and minor film soundtracks including The Crow, The Crow: City Of Angels, The Craft, The Saint, and Chinese Box.

Peter Afterman is known for The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), Juno (2007) and Get on Up (2014).

The pioneering German collective Tangerine Dream has been delivering their distinctive style of ambient music for nearly three decades, laying down a foundation of sound textures and sonic imagery that has influenced many of today's electronic musicians. Founded in 1967 by fine art aficionado Edgar Froese the group released their first album, "Electronic Meditation" in 1970, and, through many different line-ups in proceeding years, delivered a unique brand of space-rock, making use of electronic instruments like synths and Mellotron, along traditional instruments like rock guitar and blues harmonica. Their work on William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977) was the beginning of many film projects that the group would undertake throughout the 1980s, including Thief (1981) and The Keep (1983), both directed by Michael Mann, Legend (1985) by Ridley Scott, Near Dark (1987) by Kathryn Bigelow and the box-office hit Risky Business (1983) with Tom Cruise. Throughout the 1990s, the group has been as active as ever, releasing as many as five albums a year, including remastered versions of early material.

Jerome Froese is known for Rabbit Ears: Rumpelstiltskin (1991), Thief: Truth-Telling Style: Michael Mann on 'Thief' (2014) and Tangerine Dream: Sound from Another World (2016).

The pioneering German collective Tangerine Dream has been delivering their distinctive style of ambient music for nearly three decades, laying down a foundation of sound textures and sonic imagery that has influenced many of today's electronic musicians. Founded in 1967 by fine art aficinado Edgar Froese the group released their first album, "Electronic Meditation" in 1970, and, through many different line-ups in proceeding years, delivered a unique brand of space-rock, making use of electronic instruments like synths and Mellotron, along traditional instruments like rock guitar and blues harmonica. Their work on William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977) was the beginning of many film projects that the group would undertake throughout the 1980s, including Thief (1981) and The Keep (1983), both directed by Michael Mann, Legend (1985) by Ridley Scott, Near Dark (1987) by Kathryn Bigelow and the boxoffice hit Risky Business (1983) with Tom Cruise. Throughout the 1990s, the group has been as active as ever, releasing as many as five albums a year, including remastered versions of early material.

A world renowned trumpeter/composer/band leader and Blue Note recording artist, Terence Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for motion pictures. Blanchard was born and raised in New Orleans where he studied with the Marsalis brothers at the famed New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. In 1980, he won a scholarship to Rutgers University and immediately began performing in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Two years later, he succeeded Wynton Marsalis in the legendary Jazz Messengers before forming his own influential groups. Blanchard originally began performing on Spike Lee's soundtracks, including "Mo Better Blues" in which he ghosted the trumpet for Denzel Washington. Blanchard lives in New Orleans with his wife, Robin, and his four children.

Toshiyuki Honda was born on 9 April 1957 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a composer and actor, known for Raise the Red Lantern (1991), A Taxing Woman (1987) and Supermarket Woman (1996).