Entertainment industry news magazine Variety reported on Thursday that an animated film adaptation of Bandai Namco Entertainment's Klonoa video game series is in development. United States-based production company Henshin is working on the film, which was announced at TIFFCOM. Henshin founder Rob Pereyda is the producer, while Hitoshi Ariga ( Mega Man Megamix , Megaman Gigamix , Big O manga, Pokemon illustrations) is penning the script, co-producing, and designing the characters.

The film will have an original story set in the same universe as the original game,

Namco launched the first Klonoa game, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile , for the PlayStation in 1997. The second numbered sequel, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil , shipped for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. Two handheld games, Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum and Klonoa: Empire of Dreams , also shipped for the WonderSwan and Game Boy Advance, respectively. Namco released Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament on PlayStatio and Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal on Game Boy Advance in 2002. A remake of the first game shipped for the Wii in 2008.

The games center on the titular Klonoa, a kind and good-hearted "Dream Traveler" who protects the dreams of various worlds along with his friends Hewpoe, Lolo, Popka, and more.

Pereyda was previously the producer and editor-in-chief of ShiftyLook, a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Entertainment (then known as Namco Bandai Games) that focused on web comics, cartoons, and games based on classic Namco franchises. It launched animated series based on games such as Wonder Momo , Bravoman , and Mappy . Pereyda was also previously the vice president of licensing at Crunchyroll before stepping down in 2011. Pereyda founded Henshin in 2014.

Ariga previously serialized a Klonoa web comic titled Klonoa: Dream Traveller of Noctis Sol for ShiftyLook from 2012 to 2014.

Source: Variety (Mark Schilling)

Image by Hitoshi Ariga, courtesy Henshin, Inc. ©BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Inc.

Update: Added detail about original story and updated image with credit, and typo fixed. Thanks, rrizqiw