While there’s seemingly little progress on turning the classic anime epic Akira into a live-action Hollywood spectacle (thank goodness), the Japanese horror adventure Blood Vampire looks like it’ll make the switch from ‘toon format to flesh and, well, blood next year.
Jet Li’s Fearless director Ronny Yu is behind the camera for the movie, which will star South Korean favourite Jun Ji-hyun as a vampire employed by the US government as a sort of post World War Two Buffy – hunting demons and keeping the population safe from other bloodsuckers.
Jun’s not exactly a household name here, but she’s beloved in South Korea, having starred in romantic drama Il Mare (which was mangled into The Lake House) and comedy My Sassy Girl (currently being remade in the States).
"This is the first big-budget Hollywood film for a Korean actress speaking English in the lead role," a mysterious, unnamed spokesperson for talent company iHQ apparently told The Hollywood Reporter, before exclaiming, “You ain’t seen me, right?”, tapping his nose and vanishing into the crowd at the American Film Market.
Vampire will kick off shooting this March in China and Argentina with plans to arrive in 2008.