rain fall Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I dug John Cusack in Grosse Point Blank, and many other actors who have taken on the role of hit man. However, none of them really compare to the thought of Gary Oldman getting down with his bad self once again. As Peter mentioned yesterday, the actor is in talks to join the cast of the Japan-set thriller Rain Fall. Should the negotiations go well, Oldman will play John Rain, "a hit man who is forced to protect the daughter of one of his victims against assassination by the CIA." It's a role that could be good, but with Oldman, can be great.

Unfortunately, don't start dreaming of a new Professional quite yet. While the film is adapted from Barry Eisler's best-selling novel, it's a Japanese production that will be shot mostly in Japanese, with only 15% of the dialog being English. I'm not quite sure how that works, but I guess we'll see soon enough. Eisler's book follows Rain, a Japanese American half-breed who used to be part of the US Special Forces. As a hit man, he's got a skill for making his hits look like natural death. He performs a hit for a computer disc, that many are looking for, and happens to fall in love with the hit's daughter. Oldman will be joined on-screen by Shiina Kippei and Akiho Hasegawa.

I love Oldman's recent stints in Harry Potter and the new Batman series, but really, is there anything like bad-ass Oldman? Which baddie do you prefer?

*Gah. In my fangirl haze, I mistaken misread the piece as Oldman being the assassin. My apologies! Jonathan is probably right, but still, this could be a creepy role for the actor. Bring on the creep!

As I reported in December, Danny and Oxide Pang (Bangkok Dangerous, The Messengers) were hired to direct the sequel to action fantasy The Storm Riders. More details have surfaced at the Hong Kong Filmart, according to Variety. Filming begins next month with original stars Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng set to return; Simon Yam, Nicholas Tse, and Charlene Choi will also star. The picture will be the first Hong Kong movie filmed exclusively on blue screen, a la 300, though the budget is just $12 million, compared to 300's estimated cost of $65 million. The Storm Riders II is due for release at the end of 2009.

Variety is also reporting that the wonderfully versatile Gary Oldman is in "advanced negotiations" to star in Rain Fall, the "story of a hit man who is forced to protect the daughter of one of his victims against assassination by the C.I.A." If the deal goes through, Oldman would join Shiina Kippei (Shinobi) and actress Akiho Hasegawa. Max Mannix will direct the Japan-set thriller; veteran producer Satoru Iseki is employing "sophisticated Western financing techniques" to get the picture made.

We've been tracking World War II action epic Shanghai since last summer. Production was expected to start this spring in Shanghai, but the Chinese authorities denied the shooting permit after the Weinstein Co. had spent nearly three million dollars building sets. Variety says that production has now been shifted to Thailand and England, though there's no word on a new start date. The film will be directed by Mikael Håfström and stars John Cusack, Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe.