Lionsgate Teaming With Sony To Make Destin Daniel Cretton’s ‘Naruto’

Sony will continue to be in business with their Spider-Man: Brand New Day filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton as they’ve won the international distribution rights and will be co-financing his next pic, the live action take of Naruto, at Lionsgate.

Lionsgate has officially greenlit the project. Cretton was always set to direct and write the big screen. adaptation of Masashi Kishimoto’s manga which is already a massive global franchise. Cameras roll in the spring.

Lionsgate will lead the pic’s development and production and handle domestic distribution. The studio recently saw Michael become their highest grossing movie ever with over $1 billion worldwide with Universal handling offshore distribution.

Naruto sold more than 250 million copies across over 60 countries and territories, growing into a multibillion-dollar franchise. Its anime adaptation has reached audiences in more than 145 countries and territories.

Kishimoto is reported to be closely involved with the movie which also has Avi Arad, Ari Arad, and Emmy Yu producing for Arad Productions alongside Cretton and Jeyun Munford for Hisako.

Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day from Sony/Marvel became the highest grossing movie ever at the domestic box office with $958.8M. The movie is the third highest grossing movie ever with $2.5 billion after Avengers: Endgame ($2.94B) and Avatar ($2.9B).