Japanese actor Ken Watanabe, of hit films like Inception and The Last Samurai, has just signed on to Warner Bros’ remake of Clint Eastwood‘s western Unforgiven. Likened to a film like Seven Samurai being adapted into The Magnificent Seven for Western audiences, this time the source material is going to be transplanted and set in Japan. Variety reports that this remake, headed up by WB’s Japanese division, will similarly take place in the 1880s but will find Watanabe as a “samurai with a violent past, who lives on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido with his aboriginal wife, but is brought out of retirement for one last job.”
Directed by Lee Sang-Il, Watanabe will be cast opposite Akira Emoto, in the Morgan Freeman role, and the two will face off against Koichi Sato who is reprising Gene Hackman’s character. More in keeping with the original, this remake has been titled Yurusarezaru Mono, which roughly means A Thing That Can’t Be Forgiven. As of right now there’s little more info released but while in-country remakes seem to be more miss than hit, remakes of international films (like we’ve seen in A Fistful of Dollars and The Departed) tend to fare better. Hopefully this will see the same success that the US has had using Japan’s source material over the years.
Slated for a Fall international release, Yurusarezaru Mono, will shoot from September to November in Hokkaido. Whatcha think? Anyone interested yet?
