"Wall-E" screenwriters receive Humanitas Award

According to AWN--
Imagi International Holdings announced Sunday that it has finalized the Astro Boy premiere dates for Tokyo, Hong Kong and the United States.

Los Angeles will host its premiere October 19. Astro Boy voice talents including Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage are expected to attend the L.A. premiere.

Imagi announced that Japan, where Tezuka Osamu created the legendary Astro Boy character in the 1950s, will be the host of the world premiere of Astro Boy on October 5. Hundreds of fans, along with director David Bowers and producer Maryann Garger, plus Japanese voice talents including Aya Ueto and Koji Yakusho, are expected to attend the world premiere.

The film's production base, Hong Kong, will host its own premiere October 17, with Astro Boy's Cantonese voice talents, including Aaron Kwok and Goum Ian Iskandar, expected to attend.

The premiere dates were carefully selected in each market to maximize the impact of the movie and attract large-scale public interest.
Astro Boy will be the first Hong Kong-produced movie to be released across four continents and 20 markets in the same month. Imagi recently announced that it had secured financing for prints and advertising expenses associated with
Astro Boy. Marketing and advertising, including billboards and TV advertisements, will ramp up in late September.

"All the financing and funding to ensure a successful release for Astro Boy is now in place. Now we wait for film audiences around the world sitting on the edge of their seats, to judge the film with their dollars as we had investors in Imagi over the past few months so judge," said CK Phoon, executive deputy chairman at Imagi.

"Imagi is a unique studio: our roots are in Asia, but we are able to create films for global audiences. Audiences from Tokyo to Los Angeles, from Beijing to Sydney, will all be able to see Astro Boy fly in October together with all of us here in Hong Kong."