Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) is coming off shooting the martial arts blockbuster Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, priming audiences to embrace the first Asian-led superhero film from Marvel Studios and potentially making an impact as large as Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. I’m hopeful that the Marvel flick will continue to bust more Hollywood myths concerning Asian/Asian-American leads being successful on a global level at the box office.
While there hasn’t been any official word concerning a Shang-Chi sequel, another project is on the horizon for Destin Daniel Cretton, according to Deadline. The outlet says he’ll direct a series adaptation of the novel Facing The Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes In World War II written by Daniel James Brown.
They came from across the continent and Hawaii. Their parents taught them to embrace both their Japanese heritage and the ways of their American homeland. They faced bigotry, yet they believed in their bright futures as American citizens. But within days of Pearl Harbor, the FBI was ransacking their houses and locking up their fathers. And within months many would themselves be living behind barbed wire.
The book focuses on the brave and patriotic Japanese-American soldiers of World War II that became war heroes. A group of fighting men that faced a paranoid United States government challenging their loyalty because they happened to be of Japanese ethnicity after the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor trusting the country into the war in the Pacific. Many Japanese-American families were sent to interment camps because the government claimed they couldn’t trust them and this led to many Japanese-American men to sign-up to prove just how loyal they were to the United States, giving up their lives and fighting for the country they loved.
It’s unknown where the series will land but Destin Daniel Cretton was originally going to direct the HBO Max crime series Tokyo Vice before Shang-Chi led to a scheduling conflict and Michael Mann was brought in to direct instead. Then again, WarnerMedia recently passed on the WWII series Masters of The Air from producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, which landed at Apple TV+ instead.
SOURCE: DEADLINE
THE RONIN 