Just as his latest movie, Shark Night 3D, opens in US cinemas, it’s been revealed that director David R. Ellis has signed on to helm Kite for Distant Horizon. The former stunt coordinator has pretty much stuck to genre horror fare since he turned to directing, making the likes of Final Destination 2, Snakes On A Plane and Cellular, but with Kite he’s planning something a tad different.
According to Variety, the project is a live-action remake of the 1998 Japanese anime movie Kite, and will be ‘a character-driven actioner centered on a young woman living in a failed state, post-financial collapse, where the corrupt security force profits on the trafficking of young women. When her father, a cop, is slain by someone dirty inside the force, she vows to track the murderer down with the help of her fathers ex-partner never realizing he is, in fact, the man who had her father killed.’
The original anime made a few waves for both its excessive violence and how sexually explicit it is, so it’ll be interesting to see how much of that survives the transition to live action. Production is scheduled to begin in January, and casting is currently under way, so expect to hear more about that soon.