SAMURAI BEAT THE RING

SENGOKU JIEITAI 1549 ("Samurai Commando Mission 1549") has just set a record for foreign sales, selling to 31 foreign territories (US included) thus breaking THE RING's previous record of 30 terrirtories. Unfortunately, the movie, about the Japanese Self-Defense Forces traveling back in time to fight a bunch of Samurai, doesn't sound very good.

Kadokawa has commissioned Jennie Lew Tugend, the brains behind FREE WILLY 1, 2 and 3, to oversee a "Hollywood" version of the film: a new edit, more CGI and a louder soundtrack.

Fun fact: the film is a remake of Kadokawa's big 1979 hit: SENGOKU JIEITAI (translated as "Time Slip"). The movies share the same plot, and the original was produced and marketed by convicted coke smuggler, and Hitler fan Haruki Kadokawa, the son of the founder of Kadokawa Studios who turned the studio into a hit factory with flicks like SENGOKU JIEITAI, but who almost ran it all into the ground with his hungry nose and his tendency to write classical poetry praising "Mein Kampf".

(Thanks to ScreenDaily)