Sweet Revenge in Trailer for Anime Adaptation 'Kite' Starring Samuel L. Jackson and India Eisley

If Kite had come out a couple of years ago during the Hit-Girl craze one wonders if it would have been embraced or accused of being a copycat. The latter might have been preferable to the complete lack of buzz surrounding the revenge thriller despite featuring Samuel L. Jackson and it being an adaptation of a true anime classic.

Starring Jackson, India Eisley, and Callan McAuliffe with Ralph Ziman directing, the film takes place in the seedy underworld of human trafficking. Eisley plays Sawa, an orphan whose detective father was killed by an assassin targeting both of her parents. Discovered by a pair of shady cops, they train her to be their personal killer while she tries to find the ones that murdered her family.

Kite recently played at Fantasia Fest where my friend Christopher Bumbray of Joblo.com called it one of the worst moves he's seen this year. Watch the trailer and judge for yourself. Kite hits DirecTV on August 28th, then expands to VOD and theaters on October 10th.


Kite (2014) Trailer by Afro-Style.com

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Samuel L. Jackson Introduces First Footage from Live-Action 'Kite'

The original Kite anime is notable for a number of reasons, but mostly its extremely graphic depictions of violence and sex towards young women. For that reason I've often compared it to the 'Dragon Tattoo' movies, although it's far more of a revenge film than those turn out to be. The live-action version of Kite was originally meant to be a reunion of Snakes On a Plane director David R. Ellis and star Samuel L. Jackson, but Ellis passed away with Ralph Ziman taking over. But Jackson stayed on board, and is now introducing the first footage.

Clocking in at over nine minutes,  this is a pretty extensive look and, while it's clearly unfinished, it seems to have captured the anime's energy. Or more accurately, lead India Eisley seems to have settled nicely into the role of Sawa, a young girl seeking revenge for the murder of her parents. There were originally two corrupt cops who took Sawa under their wing and turned her into an assassin, but it looks like Jackson is going to be playing a composite of them both. 

There's a little bit of Kill Bill in here, mixed with a dash of Joe Wright's Hanna, but it's too early to tell how it will come together overall. It's a promising start, though. Kite is expected to open later in 2014. [Bloody Disgusting]

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Ralph Ziman to direct live-action 'Kite' remake with Samuel L. Jackson and India Eisley

Late last year we learned that Samuel L. Jackson would be reteaming with his Snakes On a Plane director David R. Ellis for a live-action adaptation of Kite, the controversial anime from Yasuomi Umetsu. But Ellis unfortunately passed away a few weeks ago, and with production set to begin later this month, a new director was found in South African helmer Ralph Ziman.

Ziman is mostly known for directing music videos but he also took on the 2008 crime flick Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema, which South Africa submitted for the Academy Awards that year. Jackson, who was the first to sign on mostly due to Ellis' involvement, is still on board and will be joined by India Eisley (Underworld: Awakening) and Callan McAuliffe (The Great Gatsby).

I've compared the original Kite to the Millennium Trilogy before in terms of graphic depictions of sex and violence, particularly the brutal attitude it takes towards young women. The story follows Sawa (Eisley), a schoolgirl who is orphaned after the murder of her parents. She's taken in by the detective duo investigating the case, but both are corrupt, with one forcing her to become his sex slave while under his guardianship. She becomes an assassin, killing whomever she is ordered to, while also vowing to find her parents' killer.

Jackson will be playing Karl Aker, one of the cops who takes Sawa under his wing. It's unclear how faithful the film will be to the source anime, but I'm guessing pretty close. 

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