AceShowbiz -

"Astro Boy" is getting a live-action movie treatment. The popular character from Japanese manga by Osamu Tezuka is coming to the big screen with Australia's Animal Logic Entertainment and Japan's Tezuka Productions developing the project.

Zareh Nalbandian and Jason Lust of Animal Logic Entertainment will serve as producer and executive producer respectively. Mike Callaghan and Reuben Liber from Ranger 7 Films will also be executive producers. The director for "Astro Boy (2017)" has yet been announced and producers are currently still searching for writers.

"Astro Boy" tells the story of a robot kid created by a scientist named Dr. Tenma as replacement of his dead son. He eventually gave the robot away. With a new owner, Astro fights evil intentions using his superpower.

An "Astro Boy" animated movie was previously released in 2009. Voiced by Freddie Highmore, the movie received not-so-exciting response from moviegoers.

"We've seen him as a manga, an anime and an animated movie but we've never seen him as a live-action movie or him as a superhero," Nalbandian says. "We actually see him in the same league as an Iron Man."