A 'Noir' live action film is in the works, produced by Sam Raimi

The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are working on a live action adaptation of this story by Ryoe Tsukimura and directed by Koishi Mashimo that aired on TV Tokyo on 2001. Stephen Lightfoot (Criminal Justice, House of Saddam) will write the series, as well as executive produce.

The movie will be presumably for TV and it will air on Starz network, though it's still unknown when it will premiere.

Funimation will re-release the series on DVD next year in the U.S.

Noir is the story of Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yuumura. Mireille is a young woman whose family was murdered when she was a child and she works as an assassin, while Kirika is a teenage girl with amnesia that only remembers the word 'Noir' and her assasination skills.

Funimation acquires the rights to Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Excel Saga and Noir

These series formerly belonged to ADV films, a company that ceased in 2009, but now Funimation recovered them for their re-release in the United States next year.

This is quite an interesting trend because it puts these classic series in the spotlight, thus giving them more exposure for nostalgia and enabling them for future related projecs, such as remakes, new OVAs, etc.

For example, Bubblegum crisis was originally a 1987 OVA that got made into a 26-episode series in 1998, titled Bubblegum crisis Tokyo 2040. It is the story of Priscilla Asagiri, the strongest member of the Knight Sabers, specializing in heavy assault. The vocalist of an underground rock band, she lives in the slums of the town in a trailer truck and is a distrustful loner.

She's a great strong female lead character like few, and the neo futuristic punk aesthetic makes this series to be very unique. She was originally meant to be blonde as we see here in a screencap of the 1987 OVA (right), but in the 1998 series she's dark purple haired (left).