It seems reports of the death of Imagi Animation, the company behind the CG versions of TMNT and Astor Boy, were a bit premature, as while many had thought the lack of success of those films had pretty much killed the company and ensured plans for a Gatchman film would never come to fruition, it appears Imagi is still just about kicking and hasn’t lost all hope (although it did shutdown briefly and restructure). However, before you get to excited, a word of caution. Imagi is in a lot of financial trouble due to the failure of Astro Boy, and had to issue a profit warning earlier this year when it became clear the company’s losses were going to grow substantially compared to what they’d projected. Now they’ve brought out this one-minute Gatchman teaser (made before the company’s restructuring), and it’s difficult to imagine it’s a conincidence that Imagi release their full annual financial report on Wednesday, which is expected to make grim reading.
As a result there’s no guarantee the Gatchman film will ever come to fruition, with the teaser more to try and say to investors that while their money may be going down the toilet at the moment, if they hang in there they may end up with something cool. So watch the pretty cool trailer below, but don’t take this as a guarantee we’ll ever see the finished film.