Director Rob Cohen, whose recent filmmaking credits include the international hits XXX and The Fast And The Furious, is teaming up with Distant Horizon to rework the acclaimed but controversial 1998 Japanese anime shocker Kite into a live action version that will water down the original's explicit sexual content.
In addition to signing on direct the remake of Yasuomi Umetsu's blood-splattered cult classic about a young female assassin bent on revenge, Cohen will also produce the bullet ballet, alongside Distant Horizon's Anant Singh and Brian Cox. Rights to the live action remake were licensed by Distant Horizon from Studio Kikan in Tokyo.
Kite concerns the story of a young woman named Sawa who, after the murder of her parents, is taken off the streets by a crooked, Svengali-like detective employing homeless children to do his dirty work. Trained to kill, she exacts street justice against the detective's chosen targets, until she is able to break free of the abusive and manipulative control he has over her.
With her tense sexuality and her ticking time-bomb of a personality, Cohen and Distant Horizon feel that the new, flesh-and-blood Sawa has the potential to be the biggest action heroine since La Femme Nikita.
Indeed, fans of Umetsu's Kite often point to Nikita, as well as another Luc Besson-directed film, The Professional (Leon), as obvious reference points in terms of plot and characterization.
While Cohen intends to keep Umetsu's highly stylized anime look, he wants expunge some of the original's graphic sex scenes - two of them involving rape - that were also excised from the initial anime version that was first shown to American audiences as a cut-down 45-minute direct-to-video title.
"The beautiful but deadly action sequences will remain, as will the tense and gut-wrenching approach to character conflict," said Distant Horizon in a press release about the remake, "but the live action Kite will forego the graphic adult situations in the Umetsu version."
Cohen and Distant Horizon are currently meeting with writers in order to adapt Umetsu's story to the live action arena.
"This is a uniquely powerful property, and Rob has been a long-time fan, and we found that out a few days after we acquired the remake rights, so we went directly to him," said Singh.
"We felt his approach to action, and his ability to give a kind of hip re-working to various genres, made him the perfect choice. Rob has been inventive, giving new spins to the international spy thriller and the street racing film, and made them enormous worldwide box office hits. We need this kind of approach to Kite."
"Umetsu's film has amazing visual intensity," said Cohen. "It would be a fine challenge to define a place where anime and movies meet."
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KAMUI SHOTEN: I had watched the Americanized version of Kite when it first came out, I like it and I enjoyed every minute of it. Umetsu did an extrodinary job with the story and it kind of wrenched my gut one time (if you've seen it, you'll know exactly where that happened). As soon as I found out it was edited, I said "God, damnit I should have fucking KNOWN!" and imediately imported an uncut version.
I watched that and the intestity of the story actually increased quite a lot. It's regretable that the VHS (remember, the thing before DVDs?) is totally worn down to where I have to stash it away where I can't hurt it anymore
. But for those of you that can find an unedited DVD of the anime I suggest you look at it, it's absolutely breathtaking.As for the live-action remake... because I've seen the original version, right now I have to ask them why they're messing it up. BUT at the same time I'm also glad that they're bringing it to people who don't like to watch anime or japanese animation in general because this is one of those movies you just want everyone to see so you can talk about it for a long while afterwards. But the fact that Cohen is going to be doing the remake makes it a lot better because I think Singh has a point: "Cohen's approach to action, and his ability to give a kind of hip re-working to various genres, made him the perfect choice. Rob has been inventive, giving new spins to the international spy thriller and the street racing film."
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KITE
