Justin Lin, who is best known for his ‘Fast and Furious‘ movies, has been tapped to helm ‘One Punch Man’ for Sony, which is an adaptation of the popular Japanese manga. Sony Pictures purchased the rights from Shueisha and hopes that the concept will take off – becoming its own franchise. 

Weeks before, Lin took the unusual call of voluntarily exiting a shoot which was in production, when he decided to walk out of ‘Fast X‘. The director already has helmed five ‘Fast and Furious’ movies starting with ‘Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift‘ all the way to ‘F9‘, which came out last summer. 

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‘One Punch Man’, for its part, started in 2009 as a webcomic that deals with an overtly powerful central character who can literally vanquish opponents with one punch – hence the moniker. However, the narrative interestingly explores the ennui that grips the protagonist as a result. Saitama, the hero, moves from challenge to challenge in the story. The story is incredibly popular in Japan and around the world. 

The artist known as ONE is behind the webcomic, which eventually teamed up with the publisher Jump Next, in 2012. ONE ended up working with artist Yusuke Murata. With its increasing popularity, ‘One Punch Man’ was soon adapted into an anime and video game series. 

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This upcoming live-action movie comes from Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, who penned the script. The duo is known for films like ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ and ‘Venom‘. The film adaptation will be produced by Ari Arad of Arad Productions, which has backed movies like the ‘Spider-Man‘ series and ‘Iron Man’ series, among others. No release date has been set for the movie at this time, but the intention is to start production by the end of the year, as per the latest reports from Deadline.