Weinsteins to remake The Seven Samurai
So, I was checking the film news blurbs over at the IMDB, and came across this:
The Weinstein Co. announced plans Wednesday to invest $285 million In Asian-themed projects, including a remake of the 1954 Kurosawa film The Seven Samurai. In a statement, company said that it had also invested an undisclosed amount in the martial arts film The Forbidden Kingdom, which pairs Jet Li and Jackie Chan. The film company founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein said that it hopes to impart a “Western sensibility” to the productions in the hopes of producing movies that appeal to both Asia and the West.
Now, it’s hard to find a Japanese filmmaker with a more “Western sensibility” than Kurosawa, so I’m not exactly sure what they’re trying to say here. Maybe they’ll introduce fart jokes and racial humor for the midwesterners? Oh well. But, to be fair, Seven Samurai has been remade a number of times, including The Magnificent Seven and A Bug’s Life. Furthermore, the Weinsteins have been demonstrating a substantial amount of goodwill toward at least the Chinese films they’ve been releasing (uncut and subtitled) through their Dragon Dynasty label. I really haven’t seen them handle anything Japanese recently, save for Zatoichi…which kind of fell under their old practices.
Update: I was talking to AICN’s Moriarty yesterday and he said that the Weinsteins were looking into the Seven Samurai remake because they wanted to work with Zhang Ziyi (confirming some of commenter Keller’s suspicions below). This would be a straight remake (ie: Samurai instead of cowboys or bugs), fully in line with the original. Again, were it the work of another Japanese director, I might be a bit worried about the production. The Weinsteins are without a doubt great fans of Chinese cinema, but I’m not sure how familiar they are with Japanese films, and thereby the great difference in tone between the cinema of the two countries. On the whole I find the Japanese films to be quieter, more thoughtful, and possessing more artistic merit than the majority of Chinese films, or American films for that matter. This, of course, is open to debate, considering the plethora of exploitation fare found in either country’s cinema, but even in one-off outings such as New Years films (The Wow-Choten Hotel vs. Shopaholics) I think the difference is noticeable. Still, this being a Kurosawa film, and very much in line with the historical American western as far as tone and narrative structure is concerned, I wouldn’t imagine there would be too much to tinker with. Still, I would kind of like to see Yukie Nakama get a role over Zhang Ziyi, especially in a film guaranteed a good deal of attention in American cinemas.
As far as Jet Li and Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom, it will be nice to see it on big screens here, but I’ll probably pick it up on Clement street before that even happens.
Anyone else willing to share their thoughts on these?
