Jiro Taniguchi's 2000 seinen manga series The Summit of the Gods (Kamigami no Itadaki) is set to become a CG anime film thanks to French film production company Diaphana Distribution. Tangiguchi's manga is based on a 1968 novel of the same name, written by Baku Yumemakura. The story follows a wilderness photographer that finds the missing camera of a famous mountain climber that went missing on Mt. Everest. This discovery leads to the photographer embarking upon a mountain-climbing adventure of his own.
Patrick Imbert is directing the film for Diaphana Distribution while also collaborating with Magali Pouzol on the script. Wild Bunch International has the international distribution rights for the film.
According to Caroon Brew, the film was already 6 months behind schedule before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic created further delays.
Taniguchi started the manga series in 2000 in Shueisha's (now defunct) Business Jump which targeted Japanese "salarymen." The series wrapped in 2003 and has been collected into 5 volumes. The manga series is available in English thanks to European publisher Ponent Mon.
A live-action film, titled Everest: Kamigami no Itadaki (Everest: The Summit of the Gods), was released in Japanese theaters on March 12, 2016 where it went on to gross ¥1.26 billion yen worldwide (~$11,786,826 USD). It was the first Japanese film to shoot on Mt. Everest.
Did the truth about Mallory's ascent of Mt Everest in 1924 - almost three decades before Hillary - die with him on those unforgiving slopes? Or was the secret buried deep within a simple camera? Taniguchi's realistic art and Baku's tireless script will take readers to the heights that only mountaineers dream of.