“I may finally lose my faith in the human soul.” ~ Rashoman.
Let us hope that this is vaguely good news. We definitely need more good films in America, but I hope this isn’t a case (as usual) where they take great source materials and dumb them down to atrociously vapid almost unrecognizable levels. With more explosions and giant robots and loud music! Yeeeehaaaaaah!!!
Let us not forget Kurosawa himself said, “Movie directors, or should I say people who create things, are very greedy and they can never be satisfied… That’s why they can keep on working. I’ve been able to work for so long because I think next time, I’ll make something good.”
Pray for high art in these remakes!
US company gets right to remake Kurosawa films
Splendent Media has signed a multiyear deal to represent worldwide rights (outside Japan) to 69 titles from filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, including 19 screenplays that were never produced.
Kurosawa, who considered one of the most influential movie director’s in the history of cinema, made over thirty films in his lifetime, including several that were set in medieval Japan.
The deal with Splendent Media includes 26 films directed by Kurosawa, including “Rashomon,” “Ran,” “Yojimbo,” “Dreams” and “Kagemusha,” plus 24 he wrote but did not direct and the 19 screenplays that never were filmed.
The deal does not include the four Kurosawa-based projects already in various stages of development elsewhere, including the Weinstein Co.’s “Seven Samurai,” as well as “High and Low,” “Drunken Angel” and “Ikiru”.
Sakiko Yamada, principal of Splendent Media, announced the deal Monday with Hideyoshi Kato, execution committee president of rights-holder Akira Kurosawa 100 Project. “We are thrilled and deeply honored to have been entrusted to represent this spectacular treasure trove of films and screenplays, and to help contemporary filmmakers introduce a new generation of moviegoers to these unforgettable stories,” Yamada said.