COMING TO AMERICA: PART 2

Look out, America, here come the ninjas. The Japanese popcorn flick about super-ninjas has been best described by my Subway partner in crime as:

"What if Stan Lee, Gardner Fox and Billy Shakespeare were all contemporaries in ancient Japan?  What if they imagined Romeo and Juliet as the heirs of opposing warrior Ninja Clans?  And what if these warriors had abilities less like your run-of-the-mill household Ninja, and more like those of Spider-man, Wolverine, and the Flash!  Might the result just be the long dreamed of screen combat-to-the-death between the New Avengers, the X-Men, and the Justice League of America?"

Purchased by Funimation, SHINOBI has no release date, but it does have ninjas-a-plenty and so it's probably playing in American multiplexes right now and we just can't see it. Sneaky ninjas!

And, Fortissimo has just sold Tsui Hark's SEVEN SWORDS to Canada. It's been picked up by Seville Pictures (who distributed IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE in the North Country) and they're planning on a late summer/early fall theatrical release. I know that Canada is not technically America, but I think of our comrades to the north as fellow countrymen because I know that in our hearts we are all North Americans. Right, guys? Right?