Onimusha Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's easy to make a movie look good, if the budget is right, but it's hard to make one look straight-up beautiful. French director Christophe Gans is part of the small group of filmmakers who seems to be able to do the latter on a regular basis. His Silent Hill made absolutely no sense, but was it ever gorgeous; I could have watched it without sound. I'd gladly sit through countless video game adaptations if they all looked like that. As we reported a year ago, Gans was going to oblige with an elaborate $70 million version of the martial arts fantasy Onimusha, but that may not happen after all, at least not soon: according to Variety, Gans may be putting the logistically-troubled project on the back burner in favor of The Swedish Cavalier, an adaptation of a 1936 novel by Czech writer Leo Perutz.

The book is about a penniless thief who steals the identity of a noble-born army deserter, taking over his estate, marrying his unassuming fiancee (who hasn't seen "him" since childhood), and forcing the nobleman to become a foundry worker. The action takes place in the 18th century, taking Gans back to his Brotherhood of the Wolf period piece roots. Except, I guess, with fewer homicidal were-beasts.

Depending on what your take was on the film version of the horror video game Silent Hill , this could be either very good or very bad news. IGN News is reporting that Christophe Gans, who directed the console-to-screen horror Silent Hill back in 2006, has signed on to direct a big screen version of the Capcom action title Onimusha. The story focuses on a 16th Century Samurai who is after a resurrected bad-guy and on a mission to save a princess -- think of it like Mario Brothers but with way more mortal wounds. Gans will be working from a Leslie Kruger and John Collee (Master and Commander) script, and while there is no word on a cast so far, already several studios have expressed interest in the project.

According to IGN, Gans is currently in Cannes shopping around the $70 million production and with no shortage of enthusiasm, was quoted as saying, "I have loved the Onimusha story for years and am overjoyed to have the opportunity now to bring it to life for worldwide film audiences and to access the unparalleled film resources of China to do so on the scale that the story demands." Production is set to begin later this year and already Gans and producing partners Davis Films are eyeing a release in December 2009. Not to be picky about the whole thing but from what I remember of the games – other than that they were kind of repetitive, was that they are set in Japan, not China. But then again, maybe $70 million doesn't cover that kind of location cost.