Entertainment Weekly recently published a gallery of photos in anticipation of this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, where studios will unveil photos, footage and other information from various geek-related genre movies. Among them: Ninja Assassin, directed by James McTeigue, produced by the Wachowski Brothers, and starring South Korea's pop superstar savior, Rain. That's him above, looking like he's had a very bad day. Here are some plot details:
Ninja Assassin will center on, "Raizo (Rain), one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them...and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge."We know a few things about the movie so far. We know that it may or may not be the long-awaited big screen adaptation of the anime film Ninja Scroll. We know that veteran comics/screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski took a shot at draft of the script (and apparently wrote the damn thing in 53 hours). We know that Rick Yune was cast back in May as Rain's rival. We know that Sung Kang and Sho Kosugi are also in the movie.
We don't know, however, if it's going to be any good. The Wachowski Brothers, once considered the best thing to happen to Hollywood after films like Bound and The Matrix, have sort of floundered in recent years. Speed Racer flopped hard, and turned out to be a poor launching pad for what was supposed to be Rain's crossover party. Could Ninja Assassin be the Wachowski's last chance to redeem themselves? Will it be the big stateside splash that Rain has been waiting for? I don't know. But any movie featuring a bloody, barefoot guy holding two big-ass swords is worth taking a look at, in my book.