There is a trade between the West and the East when it comes to remakes: the US and other countries convert films such as** Infernal Affairs **into the likes of The Departed, while China and Japan craft their own versions of, for example, What Women Want and Unforgiven. Headed west is Shield Of Straw, which Chris Weitz will direct.
The original is a Takashi Miike Japanese thriller from 2013 that follows five police officers in a squad who must protect an accused murderer from a vengeful death at the hands (or rather, hired killer hands) of his latest victim’s billionaire grandfather. It’s already successful on its own, making the list in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
“What struck us most about the original film was how at the core of this action thriller, there was an intense morality tale,” Weitz said. “It’s one that analysed the grey area between the law and justice, as well as what rights a presumed murderer should truly have. There are no easy answers. We want audiences to leave the theatre discussing what they would have done in a similar situation.”
Weitz has Olympus/London Has Fallen script team Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt writing an English language version, and the backing of All Nippon Entertainment Works and Nippon Television alongside his own company, Depth Of Field. He’s most recently worked on the screenplay for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (yes, that is the official name treatment for the stand-alone films now), which is shooting at the moment and will hit cinemas on December 16, 2016.