According to Deadline, Paprika, based on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s best-selling novel of the same name, will be directed and executive produced by writer/director Cathy Yan for Amazon Studio and Hivemind. In this “character-driven sci-fi series,” we follow Atsuko Chiba, the world’s leading scientist in psychotherapy and the head researcher at the Institute of Psychiatric Research. She employs Paprika, her fictitious dream detective persona, to keep tabs on her patients’ dreams as a novel approach to treating mental illness.
A coworker steps in to help by developing a super-compact version of current dream-analysis gear they dub the DC Mini. When the new psychotherapy equipment is taken, the situation deteriorates since the intruder can now exert mind control over anybody who enters the building. The first publication of Tsutsui’s mind-bending novel was in 1993, and the Manga version came out in 2003. Following its success as an animated picture starring Megumi Hayashibara, Tru Furuya, Akio tsuka, and others in 2006, the novel was converted into a second Manga movie by Eri Sakai.
The film based on Yan’s work would be the first adaptation of the novel into the live-action genre. Some of Yan’s feature films include the comedy-drama Dead Pig (2018), which won an award at Sundance, and the documentary According to My Mother (2016). Starring Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ali Wong, and more, she also helmed DC’s Birds of Prey (2020), which centres on Harley Quinn and company.
Directed by Chinese-born American Yan, the picture was a sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad and established her as the first Asian woman to helm a superhero movie, making her an ideal choice to helm the next Amazon sci-fi. Groomed (2017), Down River (2015), and Of Tooth and Time (2014) are just a few of the short films she has written for. She directed her first episode of a television series, “The Disruption,” for HBO’s smash show Succession, and was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
Paprika is being executive produced by Yan and her longtime boyfriend Ash Sarohia under their Rewild label, with Masi Oka and Jason F. Brown of Hivemind also serving as executive producers. The two will next work together to develop The Freshening, a feature film that Yan will write and direct in collaboration with Hyperobject Industries/Gary Sanchez Productions and Ali Wong and Adam McKay. In this future America, people are treated for their prejudice and sexism with injections. There is currently a lack of information on the project.