New Age Icons (Film)

New Age Icons is an upcoming Japanese-American action adventure film starring Bae Suzy, Chloë Grace Moretz, Bianca Santos, Channing Tatum, Jennie Kim, Seolhyun, Hong Jong-hyun, Ian Somerhalder, and Emily Rudd. It is directed by Yuki Yamato and written by Seth Grahame-Smith, with a story by Smith. It takes place in the OCVerse, and is the third team-up film of the post-reboot OCVerse. The premise of the story follows the lives of an unlikely set of young superheroes who eventually come together, putting their personal baggage and transgressions aside to save the universe.

Premise
The planet of Adania is one of the oldest planets in the universe, a beautiful musical planet where a race known as the Adanian's can call their origin. It is also the origin of the seven sacred instruments seven of the most powerful items in the multiverse. When held at the same time these seven instruments grant the wielder unlimited power and complete access to the "Acoustic Matrix", an interdimensional force from which most Adanian's draw their musical powers and abilities. So what happens when a girl from the planet Nivius sets her sights on collecting these instruments? She finds quite odd opposition in a group of seven young heroes, most of which with no direction in their life and too much mental baggage than they know how to deal with. yet it seems the fate of the universe lies in their hands...

Plot (Spoilers)
(Coming soon)

Cast

 * Bae Suzy as Aika Hanako / Vibromistress, an Adanian who was born and raised on the planet Nivius. She is also a worldwide famous idol/singer.
 * Chloe Grace Moretz as Tamara Tybalt / Instant Velocity, a speedster hero who is recently making a name for herself, but internal problems prevent her from being as good as she can be, as both a person and a hero
 * Bianca Santos as Valentina Posadas / Lavender Heroine, a journalist, activist, and social media star who secretly fights crime in an armored exosuit
 * Seolhyun as Kuriko Akagi, a photographer who tags along for her brother's crimefighting adventures and makes money off of taking photos of him.
 * Hong Jong-Hyun as Kuro Akagi / Tyrian Savior, a famous hero of Sylvania City who fights crime along with his sister. However, he desires to live a normal life, desperately wanting to hang up his mask
 * Ian Somerhalder as Ryan Nathen / Pyromaster, an Australian who moved from Earth to Nivius. He had a brief stint as a crimefighter but a tragedy made him call it quits.
 * Emily Rudd as Tomoe Shizuki / Mainframe, a young scientist who longs for adventure and exploration of the unknown
 * Jung Woo-Sung as Akinari Hanako, the father of Aika
 * Takako Matsu as Apollus, one of the Goddess' of Adania who is tethered to and watches over Aika
 * Amy Adams as Tabitha Tybalt, the mother of Tamara
 * Camila Mendes as Willow / Mokurei, she is Ryan's closest friend. She also had a brief stint in the vigilante world but unforeseen events sidelined her as well.
 * Channing Tatum as Gage Brant, one half of the main antagonist of the film
 * Jennie Kim as Hanae Okubo / Acousta, one half of the main antagonist of the film

Japanese Dub Voice Cast

 * Harumi Sakurai as Tamara Tybalt / Instant Velocity
 * Fumiko Orikasa as as Valentina Posadas / Lavender Heroine
 * Aoi Yuuki as Aika Hanako / Vibromistress
 * Kaori Fukuhara as Kuriko Akagi
 * Maeno Tomoaki as Ryan Nathen / Pyromaster
 * Aya Hirano as Tomoe Shizuki / Mainframe
 * Masakazu Morita as Kuro Akagi / Tyrian Savior
 * Tsuda Minami as Hanae Okubo / Acousta
 * Joji Nakata as Gage Brant
 * Takako Matsu as Apollus

Development
The film was first announced in 2017 as the "New Age Guardians", teased during the conclusion of the 2017 OCVerse New Years Special. Chris McKay had signed on to direct with a story and screenplay by Alvin Sargent. Ian Somerhalder, Bianca Santos, and Bae Suzy had signed onto the film as Ryan Nathen, Valentina Posadas, and Aika Hanako respectively. At the Summer OCVerse Con 2018, the project was re-revealed as "New Age Icons", apart of the OCVerse reboot where a concept trailer was shown. All of the scenes in the trailer were specifically shot from trailer and differ greatly from what the film would become. Most noticeably is the absence of Kuro Akagi, who in early drafts of the film was not present. At the Con, Japanese director Yuki Yamato was announced as the new head of the movie, which is was now set for a summer 2019 release.

Casting
In May 2018, Chloe Grace Moretz was revealed as the actress to portray Tamara Tybalt / Instant Velocity. In June 2018, Emily Rudd had signed on to play Tomoe Shizuki / Mainframe, Seolhyun and Hong Jong-Hyun signed on as Kuriko and Kuro Akagi respectively, Channing Tatum signed on to portray Gage Brant and Jennie Kim signed on to portray Hanae Okubo / Acousta.

Filming
Principal photography took place between the months of May and August 2018 in various locations throughout Japan. post-production and additional photography was filmed in New York and New Jersey in August and September. Seo Kang-joon, the actor for Seiji Higuchi / Iron Ninja, filmed a scene in New York with Chloe Grace Moretz. Cole Sprouse, the actor for Strife Kurosaki, filmed scenes exclusively for the Japanese version of the film. it was announced that the Japanese version would be 15 minutes longer than the other versions of the film as well as having more scenes with Takako Matsu, the actress for Apollus.

Marketing
Character art was released for each character throughout the summer of 2018. In the September 2018 issue of Entertainment Weekly, new stills from the film were released, featuring Tamara, Tomoe, Valentina, and Aika. Seo Kang-joon promoted the film on a Korean variety TV show alongside Chloe Grace Moretz and showcased 15 seconds of footage from the film which featured Seiji and Tamara. The first official trailer was revealed at the 2018 Winter OCVerse Con, and garnered over 25 million views on YouTube.

Tie-in Manga
In 2018, OCVerse Studio announced that a tie-in manga would be released shortly before the film serving as a prequel to the movie to be written by Kousuke Oono. The manga has 7 volumes, each focusing on one of the central protagonist.

Mystic Messenger Tie-In
In 2019, it was announced that there would be special content for the South Korean female oriented visual novel game Mystic Messenger featuring characters from New Age Icons. Titled the "Icons Episode", it spans across six days for each character. The basic premise follows Aika Hanako colloborating with the RFA on her visit to Earth (as she's visiting on tour), along with Tamara Tybalt, Kuro Akagi, Kuriko Akagi, and Tomoe Shizuki. Each route gives further backstory into the characters that the movie didn't have time to explore. there are 25 endings for this DLC, 5 for each character. The only character that can be romanced with however is Tamara, while all the others can get into a platonic understanding with the MC.

Idolmaster Tie-In
In 2019, Aika Hanako was added as a character for various Idolmaster games on iOS for a limited time in June and July 2019.

Injustice 2 Tie-In
Tamara Tybalt (Instant Velocity), Aika Hanako (Vibromistress), and Valentina Posadas (Lavender Heroine) were all added to the Injustice 2 mobile game in July 2019. This makes them the only post-reboot characters to be in the game, as Haruko Hitomi, Velocity, Alan the Dragon, Strife Kurosaki, and Chronos are all represented by their pre-reboot counterparts

Sonic Forces Tie-In
Tamara (Instant Velocity) was included as a limited time character in the mobile game Sonic Forces: Speed Battle in July 2019

Japanese Version
The Japanese version of the film includes much more vulgar language and lewd content, including a sexual encounter between Valentina and Kuro. Strife Kurosaki makes a cameo in this version, although he has no spoken lines. He appears in a flashback fighting alongside Valentina and Mya.

Trivia

 * The movie was confirmed to take place immediately after Extinction, in the immediate fallout of the events of that story
 * In early drafts of the film, the team travels to Australia where one of the instruments is located. a huge action sequence was planned here, and would have included a cameo by the Ultimate Alliance team, but this idea was scrapped as the director wanted to keep the story confined to Nivius and Adania
 * Ian Somerhalder revealed that back when the film was still New Age Guardians, the team featured in the film as Ryan, Kuriko, and Willow. The New Age Guardians film would have featured appearances from the Greek Gods and would have tied in with My Perfect Creation (2017) and Ultimate Alliance 2 (2017)
 * Early concept art shows two characters named "Beruka" and "Daniel", possibly these were to be the rebooted versions of Beruka the Squirrel and Danny the Falcon respectively. however, they never made the final cut. oddly enough, a character named Daniel does appear in the novelization of the film, sharing similar characteristics with the Danny of the pre-reboot OCVerse
 * Tamara is much more vulgar in the Japanese version of the film as well as making more lewd comments
 * Just like the other films released by OCVerse Studio, New Age Icons will be released a week earlier in Japan and South Korea