AFM: Word From Gans’ ONIMUSHA and Basset’s SOLOMON KANE

Posted by Todd Brown at 10:20am.

Posted in Film News , Martial Arts, Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, USA & Canada, AFM 2007.

Prior to packing up for today’s departure from the American Film Market I opted to make one last spin through the market offices to see what I may have missed one earlier treks and was greatly rewarded when I wandered in to the realm of Essential Entertainment, home to producer Samuel Hadida. Essential have two huge projects on the go that are of great interest in these parts ...

First is Christophe Gans’ adaptation of Onimusha, the high octane supernatural martial arts video game. There have been rumors about this film seemingly forever and it is now well underway and deep into the preproduction process with an eye to shooting in early 2008. Cast and finance are in place, the entire thing is storyboarded and I was treated to a look at animatic treatments of two major action sequences - the opening battle and the final one on one duel that closes the picture. This thing is going to be simply huge and, if the opening survives as currently envisioned, very bloody. Takeshi Kaneshiro will play the role of Samanosuke - a role he also filled in the original game - with Tsuyoshi Ihara and Emilie de Ravin rounding out the headline cast. While the people manning the office weren’t sure who would be filling the secondary fighters roles Tony Ching is handling the choreography so you know it’s going to be good.

The second big essential title is Solomon Kane which marks the arrival of yet another character from Conan creator Robert E Howard to the big screen. Michael Bassett of Wilderness is directing from his own script, which marks a huge step up from the scale of his previous work. There were fewer materials from this to look at but the pre-production art is gorgeous, the script and storyboards are all complete and, again, filming is due to start in 2008.

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Reader Comments

Caterpillar 11/06/2007 @ 2:31pm

I hope that both these projects go before cameras and that there won’t be any big problems like budget cuts or producers with PG-13 scissors.