Having been a big name star in his native Japan for years, only recently has Ken Watanabe started making a name for himself in Hollywood – first came The Last Samurai, then Batman Begins, Memoirs of a Geisha, and now this week’s Letters From Iwo Jima. He’s now going from strength to strength.
Next up, and shown at Cannes last month, is A Dream of Red Mansions, a love story set during China’s vicious Cultural Revolution and co-starring Kate Hudson, which could prove intriguing (despite this ongoing obsession of America-backed films of casting Japanese actors as Chinese and vice versa). Then there’s (possibly) another Chinese epic, this time for Hong Kong master John Woo’s much-anticipated ancient Chinese epic The Battle of Red Cliff. Watanabe’s casting has yet to be 100% confirmed, but if he does join the cast it’ll be pretty impressive, including as it does Hong Kong megastars Tony Leung and Chow-Yun Fat, in their first joint venture since Woo’s 1992 classic Hard Boiled. Finally, Watanabe is rumoured to be cropping up as the Silver Samurai in the X-Men spin-off Wolverine, due out next year.
Pocket Films Blog 