John Woo Has DAY OF THE BEAST

Filmmaker will produce and direct.

John Woo (‘Red Cliff,’ ‘Mission: Impossible II,’ ‘Face/Off’) has signed up to direct ‘Day of the Beast,’ an English-language remake of Seijun Suzuki’s 1963 classic ‘Youth of the Beast.’

Set in Tokyo, the action-packed saga of loyalty, revenge and redemption follows a western outsider with a grim past as he becomes embroiled in a global turf war between a vicious new breed of Yakuza and old school Cold War Russian mobsters.

The remake was scripted by Rob Frisbee, and will be produced by Woo along with Terence Chang’s Lion Rock Productions and Naoki Sato of the Nikkatsu Corporation (Japan’s oldest major movie studio which celebrates its 100th Anniversary this year).

In a statement Sato said, “Among Nikkatsu’s 6,000+ film library, this is one of our most revered titles. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Mr. Woo and are excited he is directing this film for the international market. We think this is a great way to start off the next 100 years of filmmaking history!”