Koki Mitani assembles an all star cast to help celebrate Fuji TV's 50th anniversary

by Chris MaGee

In June we told you about how writer/ director Koki Mitani (above left) was going to be heading to Broadway , or at least Off Broadway, where his musical comedy "Talk Like Singing" will be premiering at the Skirball Center, New York University in November. This stage production has some pretty heavy duty star power with SMAP's Shingo Katori heading up the cast, but that star power is nothing compared to what Mitani has in store for an upcoming foray into the world of television.

According to Tokyograph Mitani is helping Fuji TV celebrate its 50th anniversary by writing a TV drama special titled "Wagaya no Rekishi". The story will follow the lives of the fictional Yame family from the end of the War in 1945 to when Tokyo took to the world stage with the 1964 Olympics. Who will be potraying the members of the Yame clan? The question should be "Who isn't?" Check out this cast: Kou Shibasaki (above right), Ryuta Sato, Jun Matsumoto, Toshiyuki Nishida, Sumiko Fuji, Maki Horikita... and the list keeps going on.

"Wagaya no Rekishi" is set to air on Fuji TV for three nights in the spring of next year.