Pathe has announced release dates for the live action adaptation of Production I.G.’s anime Blood the Last Vampire in England (June 12th) and France (June 17th).  No U.S. date has been announced yet, but some sort of U.S. release is likely—in fact Universal has picked up U.S. rights to the film, which greatly increases the likelihood that the innovative vampire saga will get a U.S. theatrical premiere and decent distribution.  Back in 2001 Manga Entertainment sold 120,000 DVDs of the original Blood the Last Vampire anime feature (see “Blood the Last Vampire Sets Manga Ent. Record”), so the property has some pretty good name recognition here.

South Korean star Jun Ji-Hyun, who has changed her name to Gianna Jun for this movie, will portray Saya, the sword-wielding, vampire-slaying heroine.  Bill Kong, producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is performing a similar chore on Blood along with Ronny Yu, who was originally slated to direct and slid over to producing chores when Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon) took over as director.