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Carl Rinsch Directing 47 Ronin Instead of the Alien Prequel

by Alex Billington
November 17, 2009

Remember back in May, we reported that first-time feature director Carl Rinsch would supposedly be helming the Alien prequel that Fox was developing? If not that, you surely remember hearing about a project called 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves attached to star, right? Well, THR has confirmed today that instead of directing the Alien prequel (Ridley Scott himself is said to be directing that), Rinsch will make his feature debut with 47 Ronin, an epic period samurai swordsmen movie setup at Universal with producer Scott Stuber. According to Variety, Reeves is still attached to star. Universal wants this shooting right away.

47 Ronin tells the famous real life story of a band of samurai swordsmen who avenge the death of their master in 18th Century Japan. The script was tailored by Chris Morgan (of Wanted and Fast & Furious) so that the half-Asian Reeves can play one of the swordsmen. The film mixes the fantastical elements of films like Lord of the Rings with battle scenes on the order of Gladiator and 300. I really like the sound of that, but with Rinsch, it's hard to know what we're going to get with this. Despite having even seen some of his commercials, I still don't know what his style will be. Either way, I'm excited, this could be pretty awesome.

Explore tags: Movie News, Opinions

lego

like you said, this could be awesome. which reminds me(somehow), what's going on with the Warrior's Way
Dan W

What are they goin to tape Reeve's eyes back to make him look Asian? This is just stupid.
sean

#2 Reeves is half-asian... as is the character that he's playing.
Casey

I don't trust first time directors. It's a pity because the story idea sounds fantastic. How did this guy get attached to such a premium gig? He's done nothing, yet Universal is going to trust him to learn, on the job, with their tentpole movie? How did that happen? Gore Verbinski isn't doing anything, why not him? The story sounds GREAT and I'll be the first in line for it, but a green director brings back visions of Wolverine. It makes me nervous.
Roberto Dinamite

#3, the character is not supposed to be half-asian. where'd you get that from?
lopez

#5 He got it from reading the article, as you would too if you could read.
sean

#5 ... from the script.
Robbie

I think Reeves is the right guy for this.
Demtor

I hope its at least an R. Some violence could help us all with the pain of watching Reeves convince us of his samurai spirit.
reeves is awful

Keanu Reeves is not the "right guy" for anything....epic fail. How about getting some Japanese actors to play Japanese characters. Burn Hollywood, burn.
Karl

gee here is a novel idea, get really good Japanese actors to play the samurai. there are plenty of them to choose from that are better actors than K.R. maybe they should have Tom Cruise play his Sensei. then he could show him how easy it is to become a master swordsman and get accepted as an outsider by the Japanese. LOL
j jack

Don't be stupid people. There will be plenty of Japanese actors in the film. It's called *47* Ronin. That's 46 actors to go. But the studio also wants a big international star to sell the thing. So they had the sense to get one that is at least partially Asian and tailor the part accordingly. \ Fanboy constant griping over nothing is why studios don't take fanboy gripes seriously. That's a shame because sometimes fanboys have a good point. But it doesn't get heard, because the studio just says, "Oh that's just fanboys having fits again. It's meaningless." If they listened to fanboys they could head off things like THE SPIRIT or SUPERMAN RETURNS' franchise-killing bastard child. But studios don't listen to fanboys because of things like their tantrum over Spider-Man's organic web shooters, or X-Men's leather costumes. Fanboys need to learn not to cry about everything just because they can. They'd have more power if they pick their battles.
bangbang

Remake of "Chushingura" Awesome, will be different with Reeves though, but I also said "The Last Samurai" would be a let down.
reeves is awful

@#12 that sounds like fanboy talk to me......It's a proven fact that Keanu Reeves is a terrible actor, that has nothing to do with fanboy/nonfanboy bullshit. He just sucks, plain and simple.
Colin

What are the "fantastical elements?" I don't remember there being any semblance of "fantasy" in the book. Just killing and (dis)honour. Fantasy elements + Keanu Reeves = Something like the 47 Ronin Story in name only.
Lando

fantasy elements= keanu acting like a real actor "WO Dude, I will avenge my master"
Bill in Burlington

Keanu Reeves?? They just lost me. I love big samurai epics, but there's got to be a dozen versions of this story aleady on film.
Kurt

Hollywood is the only place where a supposedly mediocre and wooden actor (Reeves) continues to pull in the big paychecks, in addition to churning out hits. It doesn't matter that Keanu sucks, but the money-grubbing studio execs know that the man-boy is a huge draw internationally. "The Day The Earth Stood Still" sucked, in my not so humble opinion, but it pulled in 150 million internationally (much to my surprise), and as long as the big wigs in Hollywood continue seeing those numbers, we can cry a river about how K.R. sucks but we will just have to bear seeing him in big movies every year. After this, he's in "Cowboy Bebop" so I'm wondering, how long are we going to keep trash-talking him before we realize nobody in freaking Hollywood cares about his inability to act?