© 2004 Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd., Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. and Dentsu Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Not long ago, it was reported that “Saturday Night” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” director Jason Reitman was attached to make a live-action family film based on the well-known “Astro Boy” manga and anime series, encompassing all four parts of the story.

The project would have brought Reitman back into collaboration with Gil Kenan, the “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” writer.

Now though, The Insneider reports that the film “will not be moving forward at Sony”. He mentions it could be picked up by someone else later, but Reitman’s passion for this project makes it unlikely to happen.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Osamu Tezuka created the original manga, which subsequently became the foundation for three distinct anime series – the most prominent being the 1980 version, consisting of 52 episodes, which achieved significant popularity in Australia.

In 2009, Imagei Animation Studios and Summit Entertainment released an animated film called “Astro Boy.“