Watchmen screenwriter on board for Japanese anime feature.
Watchmen sceenwriter Alex Tse has been tapped to write “Ninja Scroll”- a live action adaptation of the classic Japanese anime feature. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way is producing along with Madhouse Pictures and Jungo Maruta.
Ranking alongside “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell” as one of the most popular animes outside of Japan, “Ninja” is set in feudal Japan and follows a ninja who must fight eight demonic warriors in order to save Japan. The hard-R movie, released in 1993 in Japan, featured a villain with stone skin, a hunchback with a wasp nest as his hump and a woman whose snake tattoos come to life.
Aside from “Watchmen”, Tse’s recent credits include the adaptation of Ray Bradbury novel “The Illustrated Man,” which Snyder is planning to direct. He also adapted “Frankie Machine,” based on the Don Winslow novel “The Winter of Frankie Machine” with Michael Mann is attached to direct.