Variety is reporting that Clint Eastwood‘s companion piece to his World War II drama Flags of Our Fathers is moving forward as Ken Watanabe joins the cast of Red Sun, Black Sand.
The film is described as “the Japanese companion piece” to Flags of Our Fathers the film will look at the same period in time as Flags only from the Japanese perspective. Flags of Our Fathers is based on the bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers, which chronicled the battle of Iwo Jima and the fates of the flag raisers and some of their brothers in Easy Company.
Red Sun will begin production next week in Los Angeles with permission to shoot exteriors on Iwo Jima. The picture will shoot entirely in Japanese and was penned by Japanese-American scribe Iris Yamashita, from a story by her and Oscar-winner Paul Haggis, who adapted Flags. In Japan the feature will be titled Letters from Iwo Jima.
The story revolves around the real-life Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, played by Watanabe, who battled American troops for 40 days on the small island of Iwo Jima.
Also starring in Red Sun are Japanese thesps Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase and Shido Nakamura.
If this film doesn’t sound interesting to you there is something wrong. If both of these films don’t capture your attention then there is something wrong.
Flags of Our Fathers is expected to release later this year and stars Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford, Paul Walker and Neal McDonough.
You can click here for more on the flick and you can also click here to listen to Paul Walker talk about his time working with Clint Eastwood.
