Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures will release the Japanese live action adventure film Midnight Eagle in North America this year.  Universal's Japanese subsidiary was one of the members of a consortium that backed the film, which was produced by Shochiku.  The film had its premiere in Hollywood last week at the Egyptian Theater.  Variety did not indicate how wide a release Midnight Eagle would receive here in the States.

Directed by Izura Narushima and produced for $10 million, Midnight Eagle is the story of a battle between Japanese forces and a band of secret agents from an unnamed country who are endeavoring to acquire secret technology from an American Stealth bomber that crashed on a remote Japanese mountainside.  Midnight Eagle, which was adapted from a novel by Tetsuo Takashima and produced with massive help from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, stars Takao Osawa, Yuko Takeuchi, Hiroshi Tamaki and Eisaku Yoshida.