Nichols in an awards ceremony

Mike Nichols is all set to direct a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s much loved High and Low for Miramax films.

The film will be written by David Mamet and produced by scott Rudin. The film has not started casting yet. Martin Scorsese had commissioned Mamet to write the script back in 1999; it took two years for Rudin to pull the rights together. Scorsese will by an executive producer on the film.

Kurosawa’s 1963 detective thriller starring Toshiro Mifune wasa based on the Ed McBain novel King’s Ransom, about a businessman who is ruined when he honorably pays a ransom to kidnappers who mistakenly nabbed his driver’s son.

Several Kurosawa films have been remade by Hollywood most notably “The Seven Samurai”(The Magnificent Seven) and Rashomon( The Outrage). Steven Spielberg has also shown interest in remaking Ikuru at Dreamworks. Another Seven Samurai movie is also in the pipeline.

Nichols last film was the forgettable Charlie Wilson’s War. The film had a stellar cast with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. It gave Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar nomination for his role in the movie. Rudin executive producer for Nichols 2004 hit Closer starring Roberts and Clive Owen. It was based on the Patrick Marber play.

Scott Rudin just recently backed out of Stephen Daldry’s upcoming movie The Reader starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes after battles with Harvey Weinstein. But he has some really interesting projects lined up like the Revolutionary Road and Doubt.

There are also a slew of movies releasing next year for him like the Nancy Meyers comedy starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, and Wes Anderson’s animated The Fantastic Mr Fox voiced once again by Streep and George Clooney. The film was written by Noah Baumbach, who is also set to direct his next original, Greenburg for Rudin.

The Coen Brothers are also adapting Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policman’s Union, as well as a Western Classic True Grit for their Oscar Winning No Country for Old Men producer. Steve Zallian is directing A Thousand Splendid Suns at Sony while bestseller The Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao is set up at Miramax with The Motorcycle Diaries writer and director Jose Rivera and Walter Salles.

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