Akiyuki Nosaka's autobiographical novel, Grave of the Fireflies, is set to get another live-action feature film adaptation. It tells a story of survival in the wake of the firebombing of Kobe in 1945. It was already adapted once as a beautiful made Japanese animated film in 1988. The must watch movie was produced by Studio Ghibli, and directed by Isao Takahata. There was also a live-action Japanese version of the story made in 2005, but this new version will be more of a mainstream type of movie.
The story centers on two orphaned children, 14 year-old Seita and his four year-old sister Setsuko, struggling to survive in the wake of the Kobe bombings during WWII. It's an incredibly sad and depressing story, if you've seen the movies or read the book then you know what I mean. At the same time it's a very humanist touching story, one that needs to be told. It also gives outsiders some insight on how those bombings affected Japan. The bombings targeted military targets including arms and munitions plants, which happened to be in the middle of crowded population centers, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead.
Nosaka wrote Grave of the Fireflies as a personal apology to his sister regarding her death and was awarded the Naoki Prize for best popular literature.
The film project is set up as Dresden Pictures, and the plan is to get it into production in 2014. I have no issues at all with this movie getting remade. It's such a powerful story, and the more people that see it the better. Hopefully it ends up being a great film. Roger Ebert considers the animated version of the film to be one of the greatest and most powerful war films ever made, and once you've seen it for yourself, it's hard to disagree.