The popular manga Gantz is set to be made into a movie from Sony Pictures, with Julius Avery directing, according to Deadline. But this news apparently comes as a surprise to Hiroya Oku, the artist behind the manga that ran from 2000 until 2013.

In a tweet reported by Kotaku, Oku said that this was “the first he had heard of this” and added that “Previously, I signed off on the contract [to make the live-action Hollywood movie], but I didn’t know it was moving forward.”

Earlier this year, Oku explained that he was waiting for the rights back from Hollywood in order to make a new Gantz anime. In an August interview with Crunchyroll, he said, “Yeah, I can’t talk about all the details on that subject, but a Hollywood company does have the rights to adapt Gantz at the moment, and unless they return us the rights, we won’t be able to make either an anime or live-action adaptation of the manga. That’s the Hollywood type of contract; they own all the adaptations including anime and live-action, except for manga.

I haven’t been updated about how the Hollywood adaptation is going or whether it will actually be made. It’s likely Covid-19 has paused a lot of new projects over there, and Gantz is probably one of them. If that’s the case, I’d like to have the rights back.”

It appears that Sony Pictures is finally moving forward, just as the studio finishes production on Bullet Train, another manga adaptation. Avery directed the zombie war movie Overlord and will next take on a new Van Helsing film from Universal and James Wan. His action thriller Samaritan, starring Sylvester Stallone, will be released next summer. Announced along with Avery on Gantz are screenwriter Marc Guggenheim, best known for his work on the CW Arrowverse shows, and producer Temple Hill.

The Gantz manga “tells the story of Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, both of whom died in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous “game” in which they and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens armed to the teeth with all sorts of futuristic weapons and gadgets.” Gantz has previously been made into anime series and Japanese films. A production date and other details for the Hollywood film adaptation have yet to be announced.