John Woo and Warren Spector working on Ninja Gold game and film simultaneously
Action filmmaker John Woo will direct and produce Ninja Gold, a new property from the creator of such video games as Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows and System Shock. Warren Spector, the video game creator, will executive produce.
Ninja Gold centers on a ninja warrior, part of a centuries-old legacy and bloodline, forced to confront the reality of covert warfare in the modern world.
“The game concept is actually based on facts that the Yakuza and the Russian mob are involved in tons of gold being stolen in South Africa,” said Terrence Chang, Woo’s production partner. Mr. Spector added: “The idea actually started with John Woo. He wanted to do something involving traditional ninjas in a modern-day setting, and the idea just resonated with me. I was intrigued with the idea of what happens when the traditional and the contemporary come into conflict.”
Spector said Woo is intimately involved in the creation of the Ninja Gold cast of characters, especially the hero. He said Woo’s input on the basic situations and thematic underpinnings of the story puts him in a great position to develop the film property without a lot of assistance from the game creators.
Chang said the film will be more reality-based but still will have fantastic elements from the game. He said the hope is to put the film into production in 2008, but that requires a script to be completed by then. No timetable or publisher has been announced for the game. — Via Reuters / Neogaf
Wow! With these people involved it could be amazing, and you can’t go wrong with ninjas AND gold!
By the way, John Woo also has the following to say about his upcoming Stranglehold game: “We would definitely [like to] bring Stranglehold to the big screen. We want to be very selective about producing games. We would like game titles to have all kinds of possibility. Having a movie made from them is certainly a major consideration for deciding on a title.”
