Tag: Tokyo Vice

Posted on in Television News

‘Too Old To Die Young’ Cinematographer Diego Garcia Worked On Michael Mann’s HBO Max Crime Series ‘Tokyo Vice’

Originally, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton was attached to direct a Japanese-set crime series based on the non-fiction novel Tokyo Vice by journalist Jake Adelstein, but had to exit due to scheduling conflicts with his Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, that was shooting in Australia. Instead, HBO Max ended up hiring the best replacement imaginable for a crime series, Michael Mann. Since he was the creative force behind the original Miami Vice series.

The Ronin has been able to confirm that one of the show’s cinematographers is Diego Garcia, who worked on the Nicolas Winding Refn thriller series Too Old To Die Young and the upcoming Jennifer Lawrence drama at A24 from director Lila Neugebauer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WFA9B77Rw

One of the other names mentioned for the series has been Westworld cinematographer John Grillo.

After a long pause in 2020, production resumed in November despite allegations of sexual assault against the show’s lead actor Ansel Elgort (Westside Story, Baby Driver) from last summer as the American actor wasn’t replaced.

Tokyo Vice is a firsthand account of a young American journalist (Elgort) working the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. Elgort stars as Adelstein as he embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption. The series chronicles Adelstein’s daily descent into the sordid underbelly of Tokyo, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem.

Ken Watanabe, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, and Ella Rumpf also have key roles.

Tokyo Vice’s production resuming happened to take place around the same time Destin Daniel Cretton was finishing up principal photography on Shang-Chi and moving into post-production. Cretton remains as the show’s executive producer alongside Michael Mann and series leads Ken Watanabe and Ansel Elgort.

Director Michael Mann is best known for his impressive body of work that consists of Thief, Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, Collateral, Miami Vice, Public Enemies, and Blackhat. Oddly enough, he never directed an episode of the Miami Vice series but did helm a single episode of the Chicago-set show Crime Story starring the late Dennis Farina.

The impressive part of the series is that they’ve done a lot of filming in country in Japan, which is notoriously expensive for foreign/western productions because of the endless red tape and scheduling that is involved. I also can’t imagine the added costs with pandemic delays and protocols thrown into the mix.

Posted on in Television News

‘Shang-Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton To Direct WWII Series ‘Facing The Mountain’ – Explores The True Stories of Japanese-American War Heroes

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

Posted on in Television News

Michael Mann’s HBO Max Series ‘Tokyo Vice’ Resumes Production In Japan This Week

Filming paused on the Japanese crime series Tokyo Vice back in March but according to The Hollywood Reporter the HBO Max series will resume filming this week in Japan.

Heat’s Michael Mann is set to direct all 10-episodes of the series starring Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver), Ken Watanabe (Inception, The Last Samurai), and Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim, The Brothers Bloom). The new series is loosely inspired by the real-life experiences of American journalist Jake Adelstein chronicled in his 2009 memoir, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat in Japan. Adelstein covered crime for the one of the largest newspapers in Japan becoming one of the few Westerners to do so and spent 12 years there.

Originally, Destin Daniel Cretton was tapped to direct the show but there was a scheduling conflict with Marvel’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings and Michael Mann was brought on as a replacement. Mann is best known for being the architect of the popular 1980s series Miami Vice but never directed an episode. However, he did make the 2006 reboot film starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx.

HBO Max has yet to announce when they expect episodes will begin airing on the streaming service.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER