Warner Bros "The Outsider"

[Project862006]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/08/warner-bros-acquires-yakuza-drama-the-outsider/

Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to an original screenplay called The Outsider. More importantly, they plan to make the project a priority. Granted, we’re not exactly talking about the studio bending over backwards to fund a low-key art film. The Outsider is a period Yakuza drama guaranteed to be filled with action and with a central role custom-made for a movie star. It’s commercial, but also compelling and potentially geared for an adult audience (a Hollywood movie for grown ups? Say it ain’t so!). Not much is known about the project yet, but everything that has been revealed so far sounds pretty good. Hit the jump for more details about the upcoming flick.

According to Deadline, Warner Bros. snapped up The Outsider screenplay today from writer Andrew Baldwin. The film is about an American who spent WWII as a POW in Japan and decides to stay in the country after the war to work his way into the ranks of the Japanese mob, the Yakuza (a rather terrifying crime syndicate requiring all manner of wild rituals and psychotic behavior). Yakuza gangsters always make for great movie characters and the post WWII setting ensures that the film will be based at the most intense period in the history of the Yakuza. The idea was developed by John Linson, who will produce with his father Art Linson. The pair of been responsible for some strong work as of late, co-producing the FX series Sons Of Anarchy and films like The Runaways and Lords Of Dogtown. Art Linson is one of the good producers out there in La-la-land. He’s responsible for shepherding an incredible array of offbeat movies to the screen over his long career including Fight Club, Heat, Melvin And Howard, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Scrooged, and The Untouchables.

 

[Figs]

Sounds interesting. I'm wondering who the hell they're going to get for the lead though.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

No matter how many times I see this title in different contexts, the Colin Wilson book, the Albert Camus novel, and now this movie, the first thing I think of is the slice of bread at the outside of the loaf, as us simple working class folk used to always call it that, and ask if you wanted 'the outsider' for your sandwich or soup, to be polite, as it was usually bigger.

I wish Pixar would make an animated movie about a slice of bread who escapes from a loaf before it is eaten, just so's i could be right about that title for once.

 

[Asgard]

Theyre gonna offer the lead to Tom Cruise and rename the title, "The Last Yakuza".

Second name that comes to mind is Barry Pepper. Probably looking for an actor with a higher profile though.

Either way, it seems cool. A (white/black)American ex soldier trying to get into the ranks of the Yakuza shortly after WW2 seems kind of implausible though.