Ken Watanabe set to make directorial debut
01 June 2010
'The Last Samurai' star Ken Watanabe is set to direct his first film based on the legendary 442nd US military unit from World War II.
It’s certainly a story worth telling: following the events of Pearl Harbour, the US moved to contain all Japanese/Japanese American citizens in internment camps, labelled as “enemy aliens” thanks to Japan’s opposition in the conflict. But thanks to the sheer number of Japanese Americans living on Hawaii, it was deemed impractical on the island. Plus there were many Japanese troops in the State still willing to fight for the US.
Watanabe is about to be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Producer Bill Gerber (who worked on Gran Torino) is still setting the project up.