Kamala Films has acquired film rights to the big screen adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub. Kazuo Koike’s 1970s Japanese manga comic has been adapted into six films, four plays, a television series, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.
The original, set during the feudal Edo period, chronicles the story of Ogami Itto, the Shogun’s elite executioner. In an attempt to take his position, a rival clan falsely accuses Itto of a crime and murders his wife. Disgraced, Itto is forced to wander Japan with his three-year-old son Daigoro as an assassin for hire, earning the title “Lone Wolf and Cub.” Ultimately, Itto and Daigoro seek revenge on the clan that murdered his wife.
David and Janet Peoples have been brought on to write the script. Fast Five‘s Justin Lin whas already been attached to direct. The scribes have a long and successful body of work including Blade Runner, Unforgiven and Twelve Monkeys. Lin is currently working on the sixth installment of Universal’s The Fast and the Furious.
“I’ve long admired the Peoples and their enduring body of work,” Lin said. “They’re a wonderful match for Lone Wolf and Cub and I’m really looking forward to collaborating with them on this powerful, epic tale.”
The original films are renowned for an incredible amount of stylized violence and pulled panels directly from the comic. No word if the new film will fit in with the original films, the last of which came out in 1992. One can only hope that the new film will at least pull heavily from Koike’s seminal works.
We’ll have more on the project as it develops.
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