Book by Japanese killer of British woman to become film

TOKYO - Agence France-Presse

Tatsuya Ichihashi and Lindsay Hawker. AFP photo

A book written by the Japanese man who raped and killed young British teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker is to be made into a movie, the producer said Friday.

Tatsuya Ichihashi spent more than two-and-a-half years on the run after the brutal 2007 killing and even had plastic surgery to evade capture.

He was finally caught in November 2009 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July. He has appealed the sentence.

After his arrest, Ichihashi described his life as a fugitive in the book "Taiho Sarerumade -- Kuuhaku no Ninen Nanakagetsu no Kiroku (Until the Arrest -- The Blank Two Years and Seven Months)".

He detailed in the book how he travelled across Japan, from a tiny southern Okinawan island, where he lived off fish and snakes, to the western city of Osaka, where he worked on a construction site.

Ichihashi has previously offered to give any royalties from the book to the family of the murdered English teacher, or to use it for public good.

The Hawker family has declined the offer.

The film, reportedly to be titled "I am Ichihashi -- Taiho sarerumade (until the arrest)", will star Japanese actor Dean Fujioka, 31, production company Sedic International said.

Ichihashi admitted raping Hawker, his teacher, but said he killed the 22-year-old accidentally, before burying her battered naked body in a sand-filled bathtub