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.
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.
John Wick co-director David Leitch is producing a handful of action films with the recent success of Bob Odenkirk’s Nobody are likely going to be on folks’ radar from now on. Leitch is also behind Atomic Blonde, Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2, and was recently working with Brad Pitt on the Sony flick Bullet Train.
One of the other productions produced by Letich is the Netflix film Kate that stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as Kate, a criminal that is poisoned in Tokyo, Japan and has 24 hours to dish-out revenge before she dies.
After she’s irreversibly poisoned, a ruthless criminal operative (Winstead) has less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her enemies and in the process forms an unexpected bond with the daughter of one of her past victims.
The first images have been released by Entertainment Weekly showing off the film’s slick visual style.
The rest of the cast includes Woody Harrelson (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, True Detective), Michiel Huisman (The Haunting of Hill House), Tadanobu Asano (Thor: Ragnarok, Mortal Kombat, Midway), Jun Kunimura (Rain), Miyavi Lee Ishihara (Unbroken, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), and newcomer Miku Martineau as Ani.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead isn’t a stranger to genre projects with credits such as 10 Cloverfield Lane, Fargo, Live Free or Die Hard, the DC Comics film Birds of Prey playing The Huntress. The Thing (2011), Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Gemini Man, Black Christmas, and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof.
Another female led action flick on the horizon is Karen Gillan’s Gunpowder Milkshake, which is being released by Netflix.
Deadline reports that Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada (Westworld) has taken a role in Sony’s Bullet Train, an action film is set on a Japanese bullet train filled that happens to be filled with assassins with various motivations.
Hiroyuki Sanada is a legendary actor in Japan along with roles in Hollywood films such as The Last Samurai, The Wolverine, and had a brief cameo in Avengers: Endgame playing a Yakuza boss. I have to assume he would be playing some sort of Yakzua character in the film given the subject matter.
The rest of the cast consists of Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Joey King (The Dark Knight Rises), Andrew Koji (G.I. Joe Origins: Snake Eyes), Michael Shannon (Knives Out, Man of Steel), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla, Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs Kong, Widows, Joker, Eternals), Logan Lerman (Fury, Hunters), Lady Gaga (Gucci, A Star Is Born, Machete Kills), Masi Oka (Heroes), and Zazie Beetz (Joker, Deadpool 2).
Filming is taking place in Los Angeles with director David Leitch (Deadpool 2, John Wick, Atomic Blonde) at the helm.
Another video game feature film adaptation is on the way!
Variety is reporting that after their success with the film Sonic The Hedgehog, video game developer Sega is looking to make a feature film based on their gangster video game franchise titled Yakuza and are now seeking screenwriters. The multiple installments are games that balance soap opera and brawler elements set in the Japanese underworld.
Erik Barmack, Roberto Grande and Joshua Long will produce. 1212 and Wild Sheep are searching for writers for the script.
The first game follows the story of Kazuma Kiryu being released from a 10-year prison sentence after taking the fall for the murder of his family’s patriarch. After the entire Japanese underworld is pulled into the search for $100 million stolen from the vault of his former clan, Kiryu is forced back into the lawless world of the yakuza.
In Japan, yakuza movies are extremely popular and have their own sub-genre similar to American mafia films.
The world-famous Japanese tattoo artist named Horitomo designed the elaborate irezumi tattoos (traditional Japanese tattoos) that the Yakuza characters wear in the games and I’ll keep my fingers crossed they will ask him to consult on the film.
Another week, another batch of interesting stories concerning upcoming Marvel films and shows.
Anthony Mackie Says ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Has Very Little To Do Before Wrapping
While speaking with Jimmy Fallon, MCU star Anthony Mackie revealed they only have a little bit more to shoot whenever The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is allowed to resume filming.
MACKIE: “Well, I’m happy to say we are not canceled, we are on hold. So, we’re going back, hopefully, sometime soon to finish it up. We have very little stuff to do.”
This lines-up with recent comments from Steven Soderbergh that his crime flick Kill Switch was expected to begin shooting in two weeks when productions across the globe were placed on pause. Winter Soldier’s Sebastian Stan was set for a lead role in Kill Switch, which would have meant he expected to have completed the Disney+ series by that time.
Marisa Tomei Hopes Aunt May’s Professional Life Is Highlighted In ‘Spider-Man 3’
Marisa Tomei is on the promotion tour for her new film The King of Staten Island and revealed to Screen Rant what she’d like to see happen with Aunt May in the upcoming Spider-Man sequel.
TOMEI: “Well, I’ve had her – [director] Jon Watts and I always talked about her being a community organizer. And hopefully, that track will expand and be part of this one, as well.”
When Spider-Man 3 (aka Serenity Now) begins filming is a large question mark, as it was set to shoot mostly in the United States, and the country in the middle of a pandemic. Sony Pictures had wanted Tom Holland to shoot their Uncharted feature film before moving on to the Spidey sequel, which had set to begin shooting back in March in Germany before global film production was placed on hold due to the Coronavirus.
There is now an expectation that Uncharted will resume first because pre-production was completed and sets are ready to go. While where Marvel Studios is concerning Spider-Man 3 is a bit unknown given that set construction wasn’t likely happening during stay-at-home orders.
Wolverine Villains Connected To ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Series?
A neat little tidbit was highlighted last week by Murphy’s Multiverse concerning an image of a gang member’s jacket from the Madripoor set of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The site tried to decode what the Easter Egg might be concerning the symbol on the jacket.
If you’re unaware, Madripoor is a location from the X-Men comics and it’s where that a handful of solo Wolverine adventures took place. It’s located in Southeast Asia and is essentially run by criminal organizations allowing syndicates to conduct business without any interference from authorities. This has led many to believe that Marvel Studios might use the location to tease mutants and maybe even Logan.
I then pointed out on Twitter that this symbol on their jacket is most likely an homage to Ogun’s mask (taking cues from the traditional Hannya mask).
Ogun is a Japanese X-Men villain with telepathic powers that has connections to Wolverine (his mentor), Kitty Pryde (brainwashes her), the Yakuza, and the villainous organization the Serpent Society.
Captain America: Serpent Society you might remember was the fake title for Captain America 3 before Kevin Feige revealed they were tackling Civil War and announced Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther.
The group of villains could easily become the new HYDRA for Sam Wilson’s incarnation of Captain America in the series and potentially in a new wave of solo films as well.
Ogun’s connection to a gang in the series could mean a lot of things, the Yakuza operating on the island could help establish connections to future underworld figures like The Hand or even someone like fellow Wolverine villain Omega Red (resurrected by the Yakuza). The character himself showing up could help establish that criminal villains with powers are starting to show up in the universe, either being mutants themselves or through other means. A way to possibly tease mutants are showing up in the MCU before the X-Men are rebooted.
Madripoor might also tease other Wolverine/X-Men villains.
One of the leaders of Serpent Society was Viper, who is Ophelia Sarkissian aka Madame Hydra. The villainess has a direct connection to the island nation of Madirpoor, as Viper was in control of it. Like Ogun, Viper has crossed paths with Wolverine on multiple occasions and at one point even married him. An altered version of the character was used in James Mangold’s The Wolverine, but unlike her comic book counterpart was referred to Dr. Green and was a snake-like mutant that was able to spit venom.
Marvel Studios is known to make characters fit various projects by slightly altering them for their needs. Zemo is a perfect example of that. Viper doesn’t even have to be Ophelia they could easily have Rachel Leighton aka Diamondback or Sinthea Shmidt aka Sin take that leadership role.
Originally, the series was supposed to begin airing this August or fall, but the production shutdown might have delayed those plans as Disney hasn’t officially announced new release dates for original programming other than The Mandalorian Season 2 sticking to it’s October start date.
Linda Cardellini Interested In Marvel Making A Laura Barton Movie
Avengers actress Linda Cardellini recently spoke with Collider about seeing more of her in the MCU and she brought up the possibility of her character Laura Barton getting her own film.
CARDELLINI: “I mean, you know, it was one of those things where I was sort of brought into the universe and it truly is its own universe. It’s its own entity with this fandom that is incredible and to be part of it is, I don’t know, it’s pretty fun. My daughter’s friends love it. It’s one of those kinds of things, you know? So it’s always fun. I mean, would I love to see a Laura Barton movie? Sure! But I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I think people are more interested in the superheroes.”
I don’t think this would ever happen unless they attempted to give Laura another superhero’s mantle. I personally wouldn’t be opposed to Laura becoming the hard-canon version of Mockingbird. Depending on where in the timeline that the Hawkeye series takes place, there is a good chance that Linda will return for that show giving her more to do.
THE RONIN 