Birds of Prey’s Cathy Yan will executive produce and direct Paprika, a live-action series based on the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel of the same name. The film will be a collaboration between Amazon Studios and Hivemind, according to Deadline.
Many people know of Paprika because of the 2006 anime film by Satoshi Kon, which is considered by many to be a masterpiece. As Deadline reminds us, “Paprika is a character-driven sci-fi series with a mind-bending narrative centering around a technology that allows us to invade people’s dreams.” Many works have been compared to Paprika, including Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which has a very similar premise.
Yan famously became the first Asian woman to direct a big-budget superhero movie–Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn — in 2020. (Chloé Zhao became the second in 2021 with Eternals.) A lot of the visual stylings and directorial choices Yan made bled directly into The Suicide Squad, as Harley Quinn’s flair for the fantastic carried over into James Gunn’s film. I’m sure that anime purists might bemoan yet another live-action adaptation of their favourite story, but I gotta say that Yan’s eccentric eye and flair for the dramatic will undoubtedly render Paprika an incredible experience.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.