The remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic thriller “High & Low” is just one of handful of remakes of the director’s works that seem to be knocking around Hollywood without really picking up any traction (“Seven Samurai” and “Ikiru” being a couple of the other prominent titles). However, it appears arthouse fan Chris Rock now has his eyes on the project.
AICN reports (via BlackVoices) that Rock has been hired to write the script for “King’s Ransom” which will be directed by Mike Nichols. While AICN says that he’s rewriting David Mamet’s script that was commissioned way back in 1999 (yeah, it’s been around that long) we sort of doubt that’s the case. Mamet’s style is practically patented and if anything, Rock might keep the structure and toss everything else out (and why ditch a David Mamet script unless you really want something different?).
Nichols, has been attached to the project since 2008, though there is no word yet if Martin Scorsese, who was originally going to helm Mamet’s script (how awesome would that have been), will stay on board as a producer.
Kurosawa’s film, based on the pulp novel “King’s Ransom” by Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain), is a crackerjack thriller (add it to your Netflix queue if you haven’t seen it) about a corporate executive who’s son has apparently been kidnapped. He is ready to pay the ransom with money he saved for a business deal, until he finds out the kidnappers goofed, nabbing his chauffeur’s son instead. Suddenly, he’s not so eager to part with his money and as the title suggests, Kurosawa’s film opens up to explore the class issues of the era while still retaining turning the dials of the plot.
A modern spin on the story could work, but from Chris Rock? While he has shown a surprising taste in international films (“I Think I Love My Wife” was a re-telling of Eric Rohmer’s “Chloe In The Afternoon”) this would mark a decided shift for the actor/writer/director. Unless the direction of the project is changing entirely to comedic territory (God, we fucking hope not) it’s an interesting, if unproven choice of writer. But given that the director is Mike Nichols, who who hasn’t made a great comedy since the ’70s, we’re slightly worried.