It seems that once again movie and television is going to owe a lot to Japanese culture, no small thanks to the director and visionary Guillermo del Toro.


After launching his brainchild movie, “Pacific Rim”, his love letter to the Japanese Kaiju genre (which brought Godzilla and Mothra to fame), the Mexican visionary is now working with HBO to bring Naoki Urasawa’s crime thriller manga series “Monster” to TV.


After negotiations with New Line Cinema to bring the manga series to the big screen fell through (the studio thinks it is too cumbersome to film), Del Torro is now co-writing the story with “Dr. Who” and “Sherlock” scribe Steven Thompson to be released as HBO’s miniseries.


Set in Germany, “Monster” tells the tale of a promising Japanese brain surgeon, Dr. Kenzō Tenma who, in an act of goodwill and rebellion against the hospital’s corrupt and elite-biased culture, saved Johan Liebert s life, a boy suffering from a gunshot to the head.


Nine years later, Tenma found himself on the trail of a prolific and vicious murderer, dubbed to be a “monster” by its surviving victims, only to find out it is Johan himself, who can kill anyone but the doctor who saved his life. Tenma set out then to discover Johan’s past which shed light to his real identity and motivations in order to save the boy once more.