Chris Rock Rewriting Akira Kurosawa for Mike Nichols

Chris Rock and Mike Nichols have teamed up to replace David Mamet and Martin Scorsese in a remake of an Akira Kurosawa thriller. Go ahead, read it again. It's not a misprint.

Rock has been asked to update Kurosawa's 1963 detective story "High and Low" for a film to be directed by Nichols, the comedian told Black Voices while doing press for his upcoming "Death at a Funeral," itself a remake of an English film of recent vintage.

More than 10 years ago Scorsese hired Mamet to adapt the story of a man who gets word from kidnappers that his son is being held for ransom only to realize that the thugs have grabbed his chauffeur's kid and not his own. Kurosawa himself adapted the story from the pulp novel "King's Ransom," by Evan Hunter.

If it's not clear by now, this is not comedic turf. Sure, it could be, but let's hope not. Could it be that Rock also hopes to star in the film?

Nichols was tabbed to step behind the camera two years, with Scorsese apparently staying aboard as a producer. This would be his first film since "Charlie Wilson's War" in 2007.

Contact Us