The production’s budget has soared from $175 million to $225 million. Directed by newcomer Carl Rinsch and starring Keanu Reeves, 47 Ronin is an 18th century set story centered on a band of samurai who set out to avenge the death of their master.
A second international trailer for Carl Erik Rinsch‘s long delayed 47 Ronin has been released. Where last week’s Japanese trailer focused on the famous international cast (Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi) this new one focuses on creatures, monsters and similarly disgusting bad guys. Or at least, that what it looks like; the dubbing in the trailer means story points are difficult to verify. Check it out below.
Plot Summary: Keanu Reeves makes an explosive return to action-adventure in “47 Ronin.” After a treacherous warlord kills their master and banishes their kind, 47 leaderless samurai vow to seek vengeance and restore honor to their people. Driven from their homes and dispersed across the land, this band of Ronin must seek the help of Kai (Reeves)—a half-breed they once rejected—as they fight their way across a savage world of mythic beasts, shape-shifting witchcraft and wondrous terrors.
As this exiled, enslaved outcast becomes their most deadly weapon, he will transform into the hero who inspires this band of outnumbered rebels to seize eternity.
Universal Pictures has confirmed that new epic martial arts movie 47 Ronin will be produced and released in 3D.
Keanu Reeves will star in the film, to be directed by Carl Rinsch. An epic period film, 47 Ronin is based on the true tale of a band of samurai swordsmen who avenged the death of their master in 18th century Japan. Reeves will play one of the swordsmen; the group and their master are revered in Japan for their revenge attack on Dec. 14, 1702.
The film will tell a stylized version of the story, mixing fantasy elements of the sort seen in The Lord of the Rings films, with gritty battle scenes akin to those in films such as Gladiator.
The play has been made into a movie at least six times, the earliest starring Onoe Matsunosuke. The film’s release date is questioned, but placed between 1910 and 1917. The 47 Ronin was a commercial failure, having been released in Japan one week before the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Renowned by postwar scholars lucky to have seen it in Japan, The 47 Ronin wasn’t shown in America until the 1970s.
The 1962 version directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, Chūsingura, is most familiar to Western audiences. In this, Toshiro Mifune appears in a supporting role as spearsman Tawaraboshi Genba. Mifune was to revisit the story several times in his career.
Many Japanese television shows recount the events of the Forty-seven Ronin. Kon Ichikawa directed another version in 1994. In 2004, Saito Mitsumasa directed a 9-episode mini-series starring Matsudaira Ken, who also starred in a 1999 49-episode TV series of the Chūshingura entitled Genroku Ryoran. In Hirokazu Koreeda’s 2006 film Hana yori mo naho, the event of the 47 ronin was used as a backdrop in the story, one of the ronin being a neighbour of the protagonists.
In 2007, writer Stephen Hunter told the story in the book, The 47th Samurai, of the Muramasa Blade that became a military sword in WW2 then was the source of a great adventure for character Bob Lee Swagger. Through a twist of fate, Bob Lee becomes the 47th Samurai himself when he joins 45 soldiers (whose leader has been killed, too) and a CIA woman to do battle in a snowy scene resembling the battle that started it all.
source: comingsoon, wikipedia