Justin Lin is returning to Lone Wolf and Cub. “For the last year and a half I've been on this Star Trek detour,” Lin told Empire, “the greatest detour of my career. But I'm excited because Lone Wolf And Cub is one of many projects that I can't wait to go back and revisit in the next two weeks when we're done with all the press.”
Justin Lin has long been attached to the gestating adaptation of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s landmark manga Lone Wolf and Cub. In 2012 he was announced to be directing the movie for rightsholder Kamala Film. But Fast and Furious 6, True Detective and Star Trek Beyond came next and the Lone Wolf and Cub movie faded into the background as Lin was announced to be directing Space Jam 2 with LeBron James. On June 27 Variety wrote that SP International Pictures, producers of the upcoming Ghost in the Shell adaptation, had acquired the rights, making no mention of Lin.
But it seems Lin is still directing Lone Wolf and Cub! “This is the best time to make a movie like Lone Wolf And Cub – and to be able to really embrace the spirit and the essence of what makes it great,” he said.
A big part of what makes Lone Wolf and Cub great is its historical verisimilitude. Koike’s in-depth research allows for issues set in obscure corners of 17th century Japanese life, delving into postal services, gambling houses and prisons.
Lone Wolf and Cub charts Ogami Itto, former executioner for the shogun, as he assumes the life of an assassin for hire until he can take revenge upon the treacherous Yagyu Retsudo, whose machinations first brought him to ruin. But there’s a twist: Ogami Itto has his young son, Diagoro, along for the journey. Together they’ll need to navigate shogunate politics and kill a whole lot of people.
Lin seems determined to keep Lone Wolf and Cub faithful, as least to the extent that it won’t be whitewashed and imported to the American Southwest or something silly like that. “Five-to-ten years ago, they would have wanted Keanu Reeves to play the dad... I think the cool thing about it is that filmmaking has gone global. There's many ways to make a movie and I think Hollywood has to evolve.”
