John Wick director Chad Stahelski suggests the video game adaptation Ghost Of Tshushima might emerge as the frontrunner from his packed slate.
If you’ve been looking forward to any of the films that the celebrated action filmmaker Chad Stahelski has been developing, you may have found yourself wondering which one he’ll be getting to do next. With John Wick: Chapter 4 wrapped and releasing in March, once his promotional duties are out of the way for that project, the filmmaker has around half a dozen projects that have announced his directorial involvement.
You can see the full list of announcements here, but there’s Black Samurai, Shibumi, Classified and the long-gestating Highlander remake. Plus, a couple of weeks ago Stahelski was named as the director of the new Rainbow Six movie, the special ops counter-terrorism made popular in Tom Clancy’s books and and Ubisoft’s never-ending video game series.
Speaking of video games, Stahelski has also been attached to a film adaptation of the popular PlayStation game Ghost Of Tsushima and according to the man himself, that project is currently next in the pipeline.
Speaking with Total Film (via Slash Film), Stahelski said “[Ghost Of Tsushima] would be my favourite to do next. Without going into crazy detail, it’s something I’m super interested in. We have a really great script. We have a really good creative team behind it. It’s just about getting all the business end of things locked in”.
He admits that there’s a little bit of flux on the project as all the contracts are completed. But it sounds like this one’s closest to the greenlight.
Obviously, Stahelski is free to choose his own projects and whilst we’re excited to see this one come to life (doubly so given how brilliantly PlayStation Productions is adapting The Last Of Us on the small screen right now) we can’t help but wonder if he might step back and produce this one. If reports of it being an all-Japanese cast and all-Japanese language film are correct, a producer role would allow that aim to be realised with the film’s direction as well, allowing somebody like Takashi Doscher, the award winning filmmaker who has penned the film’s script, to take up direction.
Plus, that would allow Stahelksi to get to that Highlander reboot that we’re waiting for.
If you haven’t come across Ghost Of Tsushima before, it’s perfect material for a series of films. The story has the potential to be utterly compelling as it follows a lone samurai, Jin Sakai, the last surviving member of his clan after the island of Tsuhima is wiped out by invading Mongol hordes.
Sakai is forced to resort to ‘less conventional’ fighting methods and forsake his honour to fight back as an assassin, to stand any chance of reclaiming his homeland. The filmic nature of the game could translate well to cinema too, with the gorgeous locations and stunning fight sequences tailor-made for the big screen. The game itself actually features a Kurosawa mode, where you can play in a grainy black and white aesthetic in a style redolent of the Japanese director’s samurai epics.
Whatever happens next, we’re glad this one is moving forwards and will bring you more details as we hear them.
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