Fuji’s Train Man gets musical remake for US

Densha Otoko has become a feature film and TV series

MIPCOM: Train Man, a romantic drama from Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV, is being remade as a musical series in the US by Everybody Loves Raymond showrunners Phil Rosenthal and Tucker Cawley.

Train Man tells the story of a nervous nerd who falls in love with a woman he rescues from an aggressive drunken passenger on a commuter train.

It is based on a true story that emerged across 30,000 posts on an internet chat room for comic book fans that became a phenomenon in its homeland, where it is known as Densha Otoko, and has spawned a novel, a manga, a feature film and a hugely successful television series.

The remake will be the first Hollywood adaptation of a Fuji TV drama in the channel’s 50-year history and was revealed by execs at a special Fuji TV lunch here in Cannes today.

US producer and sales house Global Road Television will be the studio and distributor behind the US version and Emmy nominee Adam Shankman (Hairspray) will direct.

Other executive producers alongside Rosenthal and Cawley are Roy Lee (The Departed, The Ring), Vertigo Entertainment’s Michael Connolly, Offspring Entertainment’s Jennifer Gibgot, Tatsuro Hatanaka from Amuse USA and Fuji TV’s Satoshi Kubota.