Warner Bros. has landed The Color Purple director Blitz Bazawule’s next project, which takes on the legendary Yasuke, an African warrior who became the first Black samurai.
A report from Variety states that Warner Bros. beat out three other studios and streamers’ bids on the script, tentatively titled Black Samurai, which Bazawule wrote on spec and will direct and produce under his Inward Gaze banner.
After impressing the industry with his 2018 debut The Burial of Kojo, helming episodes of Ava DuVernay’s Cherish the Day and working with Beyoncé on her feature-length visual album Black Is King, Bazawule made his major studio debut with 2023’s The Color Purple.
The Ghanaian filmmaker, who brought his unique visual language to the Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg-produced musical movie, is said to have done the same with his take on Yasuke, an African warrior who served under Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga during the Sengoku period of samurai conflict in 16th century Japan.
Instead of a traditional biopic, the film invokes shades of 300 and Mad Max. The exact plot points are still under wraps.
Does this sound like a movie you’d be excited to see?
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