Previously we introduced that SMAP member Takuya Kimura (Hero, I Come With The Rain) was confirmed for the live-action adaptation of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO to play the lead role of Susumu Kodai. Now the Sankei Sports newspaper in Japan has listed the main cast for the film with Takashi Yamazaki (Always – Sunset on Third Street, The Returner) directing. Scheduled for a December 2010 release, the TBS broadcasting company has been working on this project for the last five years.

Estimated at a budget of 2 billion yen ($22 million), the live-action adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato starts filming in the middle of this month. On a side note, 74 year old producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki is reviving the anime franchise this December with the animated Uchuu Senkan Yamato Fukkatsu-hen film.

The live-action adaptation will be taking a different approach from the anime by giving the Yuki Mori character a more active fighting role. Also the two main male characters from the anime will be female in the live-action version. TBS has yet to announce on who is to play the antagonist role of Desslar. Here’s the list of the main cast:

Takuya Kimura – Susumu Kodai – Yamato’s tactical unit leader
Meisa Kuroki – Yuki Mori – Yamato’s tactical unit’s Black Tiger Team
Toshiro Yanagiba -Shirō Sanada – Yamato’s chief science officer
Naoto Ogata – Daisuke Shima -Yamato’s chief navigator
Hiroyuki Ikeuchi – Hajime Saitō – Yamato crew member, air calvary leader
Maiko – Aihara* – Yamato crew member, communications unit
Shinichi Tsutsumi – Mamoru Kodai – Susumu’s older brother, Yukikaze destroyer’s captain
Reiko Takashima – Dr. Sado* – Yamato’s ship doctor
Isao Hashizume- Heikurō Tōdō – Earth Defense Force Commander-in-Chief
Toshiyuki Nishida – Hikozaemon – Tokugawa Yamato’s chief engineer
Tsutomu Yamazaki – Jūzō Okita – Yamato’s captain

*Male characters in the original work who are female in the live-action film

Written by Ryan Arreola

Source: Sankei Sports
Image credit: From the 1982 Calender  ©2009 Voyager Entertainment, All Rights Reserved