Director Steven Okazaki will begin shooting next month in Tokyo a film about Japanese acting legend Toshiro Mifune.
Variety reports Last Samurai will also be set in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Mifune who died in 1997 appeared in 170 films, including 16 directed by Akira Kurosawa. He was honored with the best acting award at the Venice Film Festival in 1961 for Yojimbo and 1965 for Red Beard. Both were directed by Kurosawa.
“I want to convey to younger audiences how extraordinary Toshiro Mifune was for his time,” Okazaki said.
“Before him there were no non-white movie heroes with stature and international appeal. This was before Bruce Lee or Jet Li or Shaft or Antonio Banderas. In fact, Clint Eastwood’s cool, take-no-shit character came from Mifune.”
Mifune appeared in many samurai films. More on that in Variety
