Originally Posted by Anime News Service

With Newtype's scoop out in Japan this weekend the floodgates of inquiry on the 4 new Evangelion movies have apparently opened wide. While the Newtype information is new to general public, like most print magazines the material was most likely put together several weeks to a month in advance of publication. In that time new things with story have happened and Sankei Shimbun has interesting new information on the project already. First off they mention the original 3 Eva films made 4.5 billion Yen in total at the Japanese boxoffice. The manga published by Kadokawa Shoten has exceeded 15 million copies sold over the existing 10 volumes. Videos and DVD's sold exceed 4.5 million copies and about 30 billion Yen. Total goods sales exceeds 100 billion Yen. While the overall project is being called "Evangelion Shin Gekijou Ban" as mentioned in Newtype, the individual films are being titled "REBUILD OF EVANGELION". The First Volume, REBUILD OF EVANGELION:01 is due out in early summer 2007 it will have an estimated running time of 90 minutes. The Second Part, REBUILD OF EVANGELION:02 is expected in January 2008, also with a running time of 90 minutes. The Latter Part + Last Program of the series, REBUILD OF EVANGELION:03-04 are expected in early summer (possibly June) of 2008, they will have an estimated length of 45 minutes each. Additionally, ANS has learned the 3rd part (Latter Part) (which corresponds to the events of the movies and episodes 25 and 26 of the TV series) and the 4th "Last Program" will be mostly new stories and material. Parts 1-3 will use some key animation sequences from the original TV series, with new backgrounds (settings) and music. Shinji Higuchi is confirmed on the project and has already completed a new story board for the 1st film. A good deal of 3DCG animation will be implemented. The total economic effect of the 4 new Evangelion films is estimated at around 100 billion Yen or more. Director Hideaki Anno has chosen this point in time specifically to produce the new Eva, waiting until the hype of the previous works to cooled down.