If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or get my blog updates by email. Thanks for visiting!
Acclaimed French Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung will direct an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s famed Japanese novel Norwegian Wood, to be co produced by Asmik Ace and Fuji TV.
Norwegian Wood tells the story of a businessman reminiscing about the intense romances of his university days, set against the turbulent student riots of the late 1960s. Tran became interested in directing the film in Japan with an all Japanese cast after reading the French edition of the novel. Murakami has long resisted giving up film adaptation rights, but relented as he is an admirer of Tran’s work, and was reassured by the plan proposed by Asmik Ace’s Shinji Ogava.
Ogava’s producing credits include a slew of really interesting movie like A Gentle Breeze in the Village, Maison de Himiko, Ping Pong. He also distributed the third film directed by the director Vertical Ray of the Sun in 2001.
The project also marks another foreign film with Asmik Ace’s involvement. He was also a producer on movies like Francois Girard Silk and the upcoming remake of German film Knockin On Heaven’s Door directed by Michael Arias of the Tekkon Kinkreet fame.
The book is also loosely based on the Beatles Song of the same name; Norwegian wood was an instant classic in Japan selling more than 8 million copies in the country alone. It has also been translated into 36 languages. His books are heavily influenced by Western culture; Murakami has won the Franz Kafka prize and an honorary Doctorate from Princeton University among other accolades.
Tran’s work has been constantly receiving accolades from the Cannes Film Festival. He won the Camera D’Or in Cannes as well as being nominated for an Oscar. His second film, Cyclo won the Golden Lion and FIPRESCI prize in Venice. Tran also served as a member of the Cannes jury in 1996.
Tran is in post production work on the hotly anticipated Hong Kong Thriller I Come With Rain. The film stars Josh Harnett, Lee Byung Hun and Takuya Kimura. It is surely going to be an interesting project and Tran’s first foray into the English language.
Norwegian Wood will begin shooting in February 2009 and will be ready for a 2010 release.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Subscribe in a reader here
October 7th, 2008 at 4:05 am
NO NO NO
“The book is also loosely based on the Beatles Song of the same name; Norwegian wood was an instant classic in Japan selling more than 8 million copies in the country alone.”
No, the book was not based on the Beatles song. It just used the title of the Beatles song as its title. The novel has nothing to do with the song. And it did not sell 8 million copies in Japan, that is hype. It was released in two volumes, part one and part two, in order to make Japanese readers pay twice as much money for the book, which could have been released in one volume, but the Japanese publishers wanted to make money, so they released it in two volumnes, part I and part II, and they then told media that the book sold 4 million copies, when in fact in sold really really just 2 million copies, because half of 4 million is two million. Still, two million aint bad. AND the book is great. It is Mr Murakami-san’s best best best book….and Mr Tran-san will turn this into a very very good movie. BRAVO! But please, no more Hollywood hype.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
“La ballade de l’impossible” — “The Ballad of the Impossible” –is the French title of the book “Norwegian Wood” that Tran Anh Hung read.