Lost Star

Lost Star is a 2004 animated romantic fantasy comedy-drama action film directed by Tatsuya Hironaka and produced by Shinichi Ikeda, Tomonori Ochikoshi and Alain Sarde, with Moshi Kawara serving as an executive producer. Starring the voices of Elijah Wood, Anna Paquin, Tim Roth, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Bynes, Jason Bateman, Catherine McCormack, Michael Rhys and Adrian Edmondson, the film focuses on student Alistair Morris (Wood), who, during a commotion with a humanoid entity (Roth), suddenly meets and saves a girl (Paquin) from the entity, who he names Eloise. It turns out this girl is really from another world who came to Earth in the form of a star, and the entity is a "Demon of the Night" named Gideon, who goes around Earth slaughtering it's inhabitants to try and increase his lifespan, and he intends to capture her in order to use her lifeforce to become immortal.

Hironaka got the idea for the film in 1997, around the time he directed the On the Ropes segment for London Stories. A short pilot demonstrating the idea was created in 1999, which caught the attention of Moshi Kawara, and the film was officially announced in 2000 as a collaboration between Hironaka, J.C.Staff, The Moshi Kawara Office and HandMade Films, with StudioCanal and Universal Pictures UK later joining the production.

Lost Star had it's theatrical premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 29, 2004, and was released to theaters in Japan on November 6, 2004 by Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc. and on November 12, 2004 and March 11, 2005 in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively, by Universal Pictures. Critical reviews were generally positive, with praise towards the characters, animation, voice acting and Mark Thomas' score, but some criticized the film's story for being somewhat derivative. Despite this, the film was a major success at the box office, grossing $131 million against a $20 million budget, and has since maintained a cult following amongst audiences.

Plot
Coming soon!

Additional voices

 * Dan Russell
 * Jimmy Hibbert
 * Steve Bulen
 * Jules de Jongh
 * Lewis MacLeod
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Emma Tate
 * Joshua Seth
 * Stephan Lander
 * Sonya Leite
 * Tom Clarke Hill
 * Richard Epcar
 * Eddie Frierson
 * Scott Menville

Release
Lost Star had it's world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on October 29, 2004. People invited to the showing included anime fans, as well as other actors and producers. The film then had it's Japanese theatrical release on November 6, 2004 by foreign and independent film distributor Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc. The British theatrical release followed a week later on November 12. In the United States, the film was planned to be released in December 2004, but likely due to the distributor, Universal Pictures, releasing Meet the Fockers and In Good Company that same month, the film wouldn't see an American release until March 11, 2005, beginning in a limited release of 670 theaters before expanding to a wide release of 1,184 theaters.

Home media
Lost Star was released on VHS and DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in the United Kingdom on April 11, 2005 and in the United States on July 12, 2005, with the American DVD being available in both full screen and widescreen formats. Featurettes included an audio commentary with Moshi Kawara, Ronald Harwood and Elijah Wood, a making of featurette, multi-angle scene comparisons, two deleted scenes, actor interviews, production notes, a gallery and the film's trailers and TV spots. The film also saw release on the HD DVD format in 2007 and UMD, making it the only animated film from Universal released on HD DVD. A Blu-ray of the film was released in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2011 and in the United States on February 21, 2012. Due to licensing restrictions with the Japanese rightsholders, all of the British and American video releases only contain the English version.

In Japan, the film was released on DVD by Geneon Entertainment on September 7, 2005. This release contains both English and Japanese audio tracks and a different set of bonus features in contrast to the British and American home video releases. A Blu-ray of the film was released in Japan by NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan on June 11, 2014.