TOKYO -- Nippon Television Network will release nine pics in 2008, with more additions to the slate expected, NTV prexy Shintaro Kubo told reporters at a press conference on the 25th.

The net has put coin into four of the pics and is supporting the release of five others as a production committee member.

The biggest is Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo on a Cliff," the latest feature toon by the anime auteur, whose pics have dominated the Japanese BO for nearly two decades. Toho will release in July.

Also arriving at the theaters with high BO expectations is "Sky Crawlers," a toon from another anime master, Mamoru Oshii, whose last fully animated feature was "Innocence" in 2004. Based on a five-volume novels series by Hiroshi Mori about the lives and air battles of fighter pilots, the pic aims to be more mass-market friendly than Oshii's recent dialogue-heavy, deep-think toons for core fans. The pic will bow in August with Warner distribbing.

The net's most ambitious live-action project is "20th Century Boy," a sci-fi thriller trilogy. Based on a hit comic by Naoki Urasawa, the pics focus on a convenience store manager (Toshiaki Karasawa), who wrote a prediction about the end of the world when he was a teenager. Now, as an adult, he is watching it come true in real life -- and must try to stop it. Also starring in the pics are Etsushi Toykawa and Takiko Tokiwa.

The first pic will be released by Toho on August 30, the second late in 2008 or early in 2009 and the third in the fall of 2009. The budget for the entire trilogy is six billion yen ($57 million), with location shoots skedded for seven countries, including the US, the UK, Thailand and China.

Also on the slate is "252 Seizonsha Ari" (There Are 252 survivors), a thriller about a special rescue squad's attempt to save the survivors of a giant typhoon. The helmer is Nobuo Mizuta, who also made the 2007 comedy hit "Maiko Haaaan!!!. Warner is skedded to release the pic on December 6.

Coming up in December from Toho is "K-20 Kaijin Nijumenso-den" (The Legend of the Fiend with 20 Faces), with Takeshi Kaneshiro playing a master criminal in 1949 Japan, Takako Matsu will play a victim and Toru Nakamura, a detective. Shimako Sato, who scripted the hit "Unfair" TV series and pic, is the helmer.

Among the pics on the slate with NTV coin invested are "Meitantei Conan" -- the last installment in the long-running "Detective Conan" toon series, set for an April 19 bow, "Kakushi Toride Sanakunin," Shinji Higuchi's $14 million remake of the 1958 Akira Kurosawa classic "The Hidden Fortress," set to open on May 10, "Sore Ike! Anpanman" (Go! Anpanman), a new entry in a long-running toon series for kiddies, and "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" (Ponyo on a Cliff).

According to Kubo, NTV will release 16 pics in fiscal 2007, ending on March 31, of which it has put its own coin in nine. The total BO of the 14 released to date is Y21.5 billion ($201 million), of which Y6.2 billion ($58 million) came from pics in which NTV invested coin. "We intend to keep investing in high quality films, but we are not going to focus only on the films' theatrical release," Kubo explained. "As a TV network, we also have to consider how well our films tie in with our TV broadcasts."