Prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike is a man who has just about done it all. He’s worked in just about every genre there is, and he has more movies in his filmography than Don “The Dragon” Wilson has straight to DVD sequels. But the one thing he hasn’t done yet, is make an English-Language feature film.
Something he’s about to rectify with some help from the man who broke the Bat.
Deadline reported last week that Tom Hardy (Inception, Warrior, The Dark Knight Rises) has signed on to play the lead role in Miike’s English-Language debut, The Outsider. But while the language may be Western, it doesn’t mean that Miike is roaming too far from his familiar surroundings though.
Based on a story by father and son producing duo Art and John Linson, Andrew Baldwin’s script – one of the most coveted on 2011’s edition of the Black List – will see Hardy in the role of an ex-American soldier and prisoner of war in post-WW2 Japan who overcomes his situation and outsider status to rise to power in the yakuza.
That sounds like it could make for some seriously good viewing, the problem is just going to be which Takashi Miike shows up on set. One of the dangers with making as many movies in one year as he does is that Miike has a habit of just completely phoning it in sometimes. When he’s on point (Audition, Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins) he’s a master at his trade, but when he’s having an off day (God’s Puzzle, Dead or Alive: Final), you wish he’d just trade in his camera.
Another point to consider is that Miike can get extremely surreal and experimental in his movies, which may put off some viewers. Personally, I think that the tone of this story calls for him to tone down his eccentricities a bit; more Graveyard of Honor, less Izo.
Either way, whether we end up with a straight-up gangster flick or one where the hero becomes a Zebra superhero (no, really), the pairing of Hardy and Miike is just too good to pass up on.
Last Updated: June 10, 2013
James Francis
June 11, 2013 at 09:05
Miike can make a great Yakuza movie if he wants to. I’m more concerned about style – Takeshi Kitano’s Brother was excellent, but so incredibly Asian that it only resonated with fans. I hope Miike can lighten things up a little for the West.