While introducing tonight's Midnight Madness screening of Takashi Miike's Zebraman, Toronto Film Festival programmer Colin Geddes first relayed Miike's regrets for not being in attendance and then relayed this little bit of news:
Miike and Quentin Tarantino were both in attendence at the just-wrapped-up Venice Film Festival this year and at some point during the proceedings the two of them sat down for a little chat. I'm willing to bet Quentin did most of the talking. But what came out of that talk was this: when writing the screenplay for Kill Bill Tarantino originally gave Go Go Yubari a twin sister, a character cut out of the final script for pacing reasons. Tarantino and Miike talked about the character some and the end result was Tarantino giving Miike permission to direct a stage play based on the Yubari twin and the removed section of screenplay.
No word on what the title will be or when this will actually hit the stage - Miike's got three films in various stages of production right now, so it won't be any time soon - but Geddes is in regular contact with the man and I very much doubt he would have spilled this if it wasn't definite.
Chiaki Kuriyama, who played Yubari, is also going to be in Miike's upcoming film Yokai Daisenso but there is no word if she is involved.
09/18/04
Takashi Miike's US$12m YÔKAI DAISENSÔ
Screen Daily reports (subscription required) that Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) is set to direct a remake Yoshiyuki Kuroda's THE BIG SPOOK WAR (1968), the first in the Yokai Monsters series which was originally based on popular manga. Bunta Sugawara will co-star with TV's Chiaki Kuriyama, and an 11-year-old lead, Ryunosuke Kamiki. Also, the artist responsible for the original manga will be on the films development team. The film is scheduled for a release next August, the production company Kadokawa Motion Picture Company says they expect the film to rival Harry Potter and LOTR in international popularity.
The company has also announced plans to make a new GAMERA flick. No director appears to be attached, but "it's not a long-shot that they will tap Shusuke Kaneko to helm the new GAMERA film."
Left to right: Chiaki Kuriyama, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Ryuunosuke Kamiki, Bunta Sugawara, Mai Takahashi, mangaka Shigeru Mizuki, and Takashi Miike.
08/24/04
Takeshi Miike: The Crotch is an Incomprehensible Demon-Man
Undeniably insane Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) is apparently working on a movie titled Izo: The Crotch is an Incomprehensible Demon-Man. The synopsis:
We begin in 1865, when the Shogunate is on its last legs, but still capable of punishing its enemies. One is Izo (Kazuya Nakayama), an assassin in the service of Hanpeida (Ryosuke Miki), a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified.
Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continum to present-day Tokyo, where his finds himself one with the city's homeless. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine, his entire soul still enraged by his treatment in his past life. His response to the powers-that-be, whose predecessors put him to death, is the sword.
His ability to leap through time, slashing as he goes, attracts the attention of the lords of the universe, who are like a pre-war House of Peers, in office for eternity. Izo, however, is not about to bow to anyone, even the lords of creation (he even rapes Mother Earth).
In the final conflict, the prime minister (Beat Takeshi), calls in allies from all eras, from samurai swordsmen to the yakuza. It should be the most bloody and violent sword fight sequence ever staged.
