Actor Keisuke Koide has been given his first leading role in a film. He will star in "Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru," based on a novel by Shion Miura about a group of college students aiming to challenge the Hakone Ekiden, a long-distance relay race. His co-star will be young actor Kento Hayashi.

Koide plays the captain of his school's team, while Hayashi plays a talented freshman runner. Their team is an amateurish bunch - including a manga otaku, an exchange student from Africa, and a bar exam candidate - but they never give up.

Koide and Hayashi have been going through hard physical training since July. Filming is scheduled to start in mid-December, and the movie has been tentatively set for a November 2009 release. Sumio Omori is directing.

A stage version of "Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru" starring Masato Wada will begin performances in January. The story has also been adapted by Sorata Unno as a manga series, currently running in Young Jump.

This Wednesday, a compilation album titled "Studio Ghibli no Uta" will be released, featuring music from the studio's past works. The two-disc collection contains 26 songs taken from 20 films, ranging from the "Nausicaa" theme song to the recent "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" tune. The lyrics booklet will also include images from the movies and their posters.

The complete lineup for this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen has not yet been announced, but the popular band Mr.Children will reportedly be making their first appearance at the event. NHK has apparently offered them a spot nearly every year until now, and they finally accepted. Two of the four singles that Mr.Children has released this year are related to the network.

On Monday, NHK officially announced that Masahiro Nakai and Yukie Nakama will be this year's hosts. The full list of performers are expected to be revealed soon.

Fuji TV has announced a broadcast date for its "Code Blue" drama special. The episode is scheduled to air on January 10 at 9:00pm.

The special is a continuation of the "Code Blue" drama series from this past summer, which starred Tomohisa Yamashita, Erika Toda, Yui Aragaki, and Yosuke Asari as four young doctors training in an emergency helicopter program. The show started out with 21.2% ratings and finished with an average of 15.9%, the highest of the summer dramas.

On Friday, music producer Tetsuya Komuro was indicted for fraud by the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office. On the same day, he was released on bail, after having spent the past 17 days in prison. His bail had been set at 30 million yen, and the amount was paid by several parties, including his wife KEIKO and his record label Avex.

The press was waiting for Komuro as he was released. He apologized again for the incident, and expressed his desire to get back on track and continue with his music career. Komuro currently has no work lined up, and his band Globe is also on hold for now. Since April 2007, he has been a guest instructor at Shobi University in Saitama, but he has been dismissed by the university.