Takashi Miike, the one-time cult director who has entered the Japanese mainstream with his live-action Yatterman and Crows Zero films, will direct a live-action film adaptation of the long-running Nintama Rantaro ninja comedy anime series. 8-year-old actor Seishirō Katō will appear in his first lead role as a ninja apprentice. The release date of the film has yet to be announced.

The anime is based on Soubee Amako's Rakudai Ninja Rantarō ninja gag manga (Asahi Comics) about the adventures of Rantarō and other ninja apprentices at an elite ninjutsu academy. The story is set in Japan during the tumultuous Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States). As first-graders, Rantarō and his ninja-in-training friends are called "Nintama" — a contraction of the words "ninja" and "tamago" ("egg").

The television anime adaptation premiered in 1993, and there was already an animated film made in 1996.