only for his acting performance, but also for the music single "Returner ~Yami no Shūen~" and the video for the same that were inspired by his role. Moshe personally went to Japan to convince Gackt to join the project. Filming Filming for Bunraku began on April 17, 2008 on a budget of $25 million and continued over the course of 12 weeks at the MediaPro Studios in the town of Buftea in Romania. In a 2009 interview, producer Ram Bergman was asked about the choice of the shooting location, stating "we needed a lot of stages available because the whole movie is green-screen and we had to build 30-something sets. We needed to take control of a space for five months... [Romania] was probably 10%-20% cheaper than Prague. We did not want to pay top dollar, like you would pay in London or, to a lesser degree, in Prague or Hungary... Media Pro Studios had the most stages available [in Romania]. Bergman continued "we brought in heads of departments but the rest of the [film] crew was Romanian. A wrap-up party was organised at the Terminus Club in Bucharest at the end of June 2008. Post production Brazilian-born filmmaker Guilherme Marcondes was hired to develop an animated opening sequence for the film, described as a "short [film] before the main feature". Marcondes described the project as "an interesting project with a lot of animation techniques, and the director of the feature Moshe is letting me do my own thing. A rare circumstance, so I'm glad to be doing it." Crew Guy Moshe – Director/Writer Keith Calder – Producer Ram Bergman – Producer Nava Levin – Producer Jessica Wu – Producer Chris Farmer – Production designer Juan Ruiz Anchía – Cinematographer Zach Staenberg – Editor Glenn Garland – Editor Terence Blanchard – Composer Mary Vernieu – Casting Donna Zakowska – Costume design Scott Hecker – Sound editor Larnell Stovall – Fight choreographer Clayton J. Barber – Stunt Coordinator Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell – Quantum Jujitsu and Martial Arts Consultant Oliver Hotz – Visual Effects producer Dane Allan Smith – Visual Effects supervisor Release Festival screenings Theatrical release ARC Entertainment, the US distributor for the film, announced on July 5, 2011 that Bunraku will be available on Video on Demand on September 1, 2011 and in theaters on September 30, 2011. The official trailer for the film premiered on G4 TV's Attack