Tokyo Ghost: Cary Fukunaga to helm adaptation of cyberpunk comic book

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Well, it's about damn time! Straight up, I can't believe it's taken this long for a studio to become hip to Tokyo Ghost. Actually, let's back up for a moment, shall we?

Director Cary Fukunaga (No Time to Die, Beasts of No Nation) has been tapped to direct a feature adaptation of the cyberpunk Image Comics series Tokyo Ghost for Legendary. Written by Rick Remender (Deadly Class, Black Science), with art by Sean Gordon Murphy (Batman: White Knight, The Wake), and colors by Matt Hollingsworth (Little Bird, We Stand on Guard), Tokyo Ghost mixes Blade Runner with a bit of Ghost in the Shell and elements of The Matrix.

Per Image Comics, here's the official synopsis for Tokyo Ghost:

The Isles of Los Angeles 2089: Humanity is addicted to technology, a population of unemployed leisure seekers blissfully distracted from toxic contamination, who borrow, steal, and kill to buy their next digital fix. Getting a virtual buzz is the only thing left to live for. It’s the biggest industry, the only industry, the drug everyone needs, and gangsters run it all. And who do these gangsters turn to when they need their rule enforced? Constables Led Dent and Debbie Decay. This duo is about to be given a job that will force them out of the familiar squalor of Los Angeles to take down the last tech-less country on Earth: The Garden Nation of Tokyo.

In addition to his duties as director, Fukunaga will also produce Tokyo Ghost under his Parliament of Owls studio with Hayden Lautenbach. Jon Silk is also producing for his new production company, Silk Mass.

Meanwhile, Remender's other series, Fear Agent, is currently being developed by Seth Rogen's Point Grey for Amazon. As for Murphy, his Chrononauts comic is in the midst of being set up over at Netflix.

When it comes to comic book recommendations, I urge you to read Tokyo Ghost. It's a world-building comic series that introduces outlandish ideas and even outrageous characters. It's the type of series that begs readers to reevaluate how they consume information and at what cost. It also tells a beautifully tragic love story between its two lead characters, who audiences are bound to fall in love with if Fukunaga plays his cards right.

By the way, Fukunaga, can you please pick up the phone and cast either Samara Weaving or Margot Robbie as Debbie Decay? That would be the move.