Japan's Fuji TV is planning a third feature film in its megahit Bayside Shakedown police drama franchise, with Yuji Oda reprising the lead role.

The announcement was made yesterday by Fuji TV's Head of the Motion Picture Department and Bayside producer Chihiro Kameyama at the inaugural opening of the Wangan Police Station in the Odaiba waterfront district.

The Bayside series takes place at a fictional police station in the area where Fuji TV's headquarters are located. The new police station is a case of reality catching up to fiction.

Kameyama spoke about the station and the latest production: 'The formation of a real-life Wangan Police Station, together with the fantastic ratings we garnered from the marathon airing of the Bayside Shakedown films last October, encouraged us to go ahead with the third installment.'

Under Kameyama, series director Katsuyuki Motohiro and writer Ryoichi Kimizuka will collaborate again on the latest entry. Past cast members Toshiro Yanagiba, Yusuke Santamaria, Eri Fukatsu and Miki Mizuno are set to re-join Oda, whose last starring role was the Akira Kurosawa remake Sanjuro, released in December. The story will follow real time, taking place five years after the 2003 sequel.

Bayside Shakedown started life as a successful TV series, adapted into a feature film in 1998 which earned $100.44m (Y10.15b) at the box office. The 2003 sequel pulled in $172.5m (Y17.3b) as the most successful domestic live-action film ever produced.

The series also inspired several spin-offs, including 2005 releases Negotiator ($41.81m) and The Suspect ($38.51m), and fall 2006 TV movie Hideki Haijima, Esq. Fuji 's franchise is credited as kickstarting the now pervasive practice in the territory of adapting hit TV shows into films.

Bayside Shakedown 3 is set to shoot in 2009.

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