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Eastwood's Unforgiven Remade as Samurai Film
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Warner Japan plans to remake the Oscar-winning Western Unforgiven as a samurai period film. The film, scheduled to begin shooting in September, casts Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha, Letters from Iwo Jima) as the lead. Clint Eastwood directed the 1992 original and played a retired gunman in 1880s Wild West who takes one last job. The Yurusarezaru-mono remake will also take place in 1880s, except in Hokkaido where Watanabe plays a notorious samurai with a native Ainu wife.
The film also stars Akira Emoto (Ace Attorney, Villain, Onmyoji) and Kōichi Satō (Sukiyaki Western Django, When the Last Sword is Drawn, Gonin).
The film is helmed by award-winning director Sang Il Lee. Lee won best director and screenplay at the Japanese Academy Awards in 2007 for his film Hula Girls and was nominated again in 2011 for Villain. Akira Emoto won in 2011 for his supporting role in the film. Eastwood himself starred early in his career in A Fistful of Dollars, Sergio Leone's Western remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
Yurusarezaru-mono is scheduled to open in Japan next fall.
Source: Variety
