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Looks like the mad genius known as Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) is just now finishing up on his very first western. Yes, I said western. And if that's not enticingly strange enough, get this: Quentin Tarantino is the only American face amidst an entirely Japanese cast ... and the movie was made in English! What the...

According to Screen Daily, production has now wrapped on Miike's Sukiyaki Western: Django, which (according to the IMDb) takes place in the 1100s -- yet is still a western. The plot sounds a lot like the Yojimbo / A Fistful of Dollars tale, but hell. If Takashi Miike says he wants to make a western, then I'll be more than happy to sit down and watch it. In addition to Quentin Tarantino as "Ringo," the movie will also star Hideaki Ito, Koichi Sato and Kaori Momoi. The film's title is a reference to a movie character played by Franco Nero in a 1966 flick called ... Django!

Looks like Django will be hitting Japan in September. No word on a North American release date or distributor, but we'll be sure to let you know when something comes up. I mean ... Miike and Tarantino collaborating on a western? Sounds like fun to me.

According to a report in Screen Daily, the unpredictable, prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike has two new surprises in store: he is directing his first film in English, and he is directing what is considered to be Japan's first Western. Miike had previously expressed his interest in making a Western, and now his dream has come true with a remake of Sergio Corbucci's classic Django (1966). Rather than the old West, however, the new film will be set during the Genpei clan wars of the 12th century.

The cast members, including Hideaki Ito (Onmyoji), Koichi Sato (Gonin), Kaori Momoi (Memoirs of a Geisha), Yusuke Iseya (After Life) and Masanobu Ando (Battle Royale), took an intensive two-month English classes to prepare for their roles. Last year, Miike directed the one-hour, made-for-TV movie Imprint in English, but Django will be his first English-language theatrical release. Miike began his directing career in the early 1990s, pumping out dozens of straight-to-video films, sometimes up to five or six in a given year. In 1996, he broke through to another level with his film Fudoh, and followed that up with the international cult classics Audition (1999), Dead or Alive (1999), Ichi the Killer (2001) and Visitor Q (2001). Miike is also known for his ability to jump genres, making horror, action, sci-fi, family movies and musicals on the turn of a dime.

"I want to make a film that will make audiences think 'Japanese are cool!'," Miike told the press on Sunday, an ironic statement coming from one of the coolest filmmakers in the world. It's likely that Quentin Tarantino had something to do with inspiring this unique new project; Tarantino has long championed Miike's films, and Miike made a cameo appearance in Hostel, which was executive produced by Tarantino. Now Tarantino will return the favor by playing a part in Django.

The movie is will shoot in Yamagata Prefecture and is scheduled to wrap by the end of November.

Priest is a manhwa (which, I understand, is the word for a Korean comic) series by writer Min-Woo Hyung. According to an early online review, the first volume in the series - about a former priest who, upon his death, is forced to trade his soul to a devil "in return for resurrection and the power to pursue his revenge against [a] fallen archangel" who he pursues across the American west - is "a fighting comic" that reads "like...a videogame." If that's true, it sounds right up the alley of pretty much everyone making movies these days, including Priest production team Joshua Donen, Michael De Luca, and the very busy Sam Raimi. Plus, as a bonus, the violence, western setting, and revenge theme make it sound a little like Django, but that might be wishful thinking on my part. (Variety offers a slightly different summary of the story - theirs involves "a band of renegade vampires" and a "young sheriff." I assume this specific event is from a later volume in the series that was adapted for the movie, but I'd love a firm answer from a Priest reader.)

The film - Cory Goodman's screenwriting debut - is due to be directed by Andrew Douglas, whose directorial experience consist of the rather mismatched pair The Amityville Horror and the Jim White road picture, Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus; production is set to being this summer.