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EXCLUSIVE: Mulan actor Ron Yuan will sit in the director’s chair for the upcoming untitled 47 Ronin sequel. The action-fantasy pic will be produced by Universal 1440, a production entity of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

“I’m incredibly excited to be working with Universal and the producing team on this genre-blending, martial arts, action, horror and cyber-punk film,” said Yuan. “This will be a fun, intense, supercharged thrill ride for viewers globally.”

The original film was directed by Carl Rinsch and written by Chris Morgan and Hossein Amini from a story conceived by Morgan and Walter Hamada. Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi and Ko Shibasaki starred in 47 Ronin, which was based on Chūshingura. The pic tells a fictionalized account of the titular 47 rōnin, a real-life group of samurai in the 18th century who set out to avenge the death of their master who was killed by a merciless shogun. 47 Ronin banked over $38 million at the domestic box office and $151 million globally.



Yuan directed CMC/Lionsgate’s Step Up China: Year for the Dance and was the action director for Jason Statham’s Wild Card and China-Taiwan co-production of Black and White: Dawn of Justice, Sony’s Black Dynamite and Angel of Death.

Onscreen, Yuan stars as Sergeant Qiang in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Mulan, directed by Niki Caro and will lend his voice to Pearl Films and Stephen Chow’s animated feature The Monkey King for Netflix. He also stars in Bao Tran’s upcoming action-comedy The Paper Tigers for XYZ Films.

Yuan is repped by UTA, Greene & Associates, Authentic Talent and Literary Management and Arlene Thorton & Associates.

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Production on the sequel to the 2013 film 47 Ronin has officially begun, as Universal 1440 Entertainment has just announced today that principal photography has started for the film in Budapest.

Leading the cast is Anna Akana, who has previously starred in Ant-Man and Jupiter's Legacy, and action film veteran Mark Dacascos who has previously been featured in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The film will take a decidedly modern turn, taking place three hundred or so years after the events of the first film. Director Ron Yuan will tell the story of a modern-day world in which samurai clans now exist in complete secrecy. The film is described as being a fantasy action-adventure and, given the three-hundred-year time-jump, will prove to be quite the departure from the original.

Keanu Reeves, who starred in the original 2013 film, will not reprise his role in the sequel. The original 47 Ronin took place in Medieval-era Japan and told the story of Reeves as an outcast samurai who joins 46 other samurai to defeat a powerful and supernatural enemy. The original film did not do well financially or critically, making the upcoming sequel a bit of a wild card.

However, the new direction might prove to be reinvigorating for the series. As General Manager and Executive Vice President of Universal 1440 Entertainment Glenn Ross said, “We are excited to continue the story of these ancient Japanese samurai warriors with this next chapter of the 47 Ronin film franchise set in modern times.” In addition to being set in modern times, Ross stated that director Ron Yuan will also bring a "vision of diverse and inclusive samurai warriors.”

The all-new 47 Ronin movie is from a script by John Swetnam (Breaking Through, Into the Storm, Step Up All In) and first-time feature film writers Aimee Garcia and A.J. Mendez, and is produced by Tim Kwok (Sway, Super Hybrid, The King of Fighters). No specific release date has yet been set for the sequel, but it will be distributed on non-theatrical platforms sometime in 2022.

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An evil witch named Yurei, whose ancestor was slain by one of the 47 Ronin, has surfaced in modern day Budapest determined to have his revenge. Yurei seeks to completely destroy all samurai by uniting both halves of the powerful Tengu Sword. A prophecy claims only a descendant of the original 47 Ronin can wield the blade and defeat this great evil. The samurai are shocked when Lord Shinshiro identifies a streetwise New Yorker named Luna as the one who was prophesied. He charges ronin Reo and apprentice Onami with training Luna to be the hero they desperately need. With most of the samurai lords dead or missing, and a traitor hiding among them, the remaining warriors must summon all of their skills as martial arts masters to combat Yurei’s mystic magic and fulfill their destiny.

Own it on Digital & Blu-ray October 25th

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