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Deadline: Lone Wolf & Cub Film Rights Acquired with Justin Lin

The Deadline film website reported on Tuesday that Kamala Film acquired the film rights to Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub samurai manga. According to Deadline, director Justin Lin (Fast Five, Better Luck Tomorrow) is already attached to direct. David and Janet Peoples (Twelve Monkeys) are writing the script.

Marissa McMahon, the burgeoning producer and daughter-in-law of WWE CEO Vince McMahon, is producing the project at Kamala along with 1212 Entertainment's Elizabeth Grave and Joshua Long, as well as with Roberto Grande as executive producer. The Hollywood Reporter trade magazine had reported in August that Lin and McMahon were developing the project.

Taiwanese-American Lin is best known for helming the last three entries in The Fast and the Furious movie franchise. He made his feature directorial debut with the critically acclaimed 2002 film Better Luck Tomorrow, and he also directed three well-regarded episodes of the American television series Community ("Introduction to Statistics," "Interpretive Dance," "Modern Warfare").

Director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan) previously tried to secure the film rights to the manga. According to Aronofsky in an MTV article in 2009, "the rights from Japan were never cleared. They tried for a while. I don't think it's getting out of there anytime soon." The Variety entertainment trade magazine reported in 2003 that Aronofsky and his Protozoa producer Eric Watson were attached to a proposed Lone Wolf and Cub project with Paramount and the Mutual Film Company.

Dark Horse Comics releases the original manga in North America, while Media Blasters licensed a Japanese live-action television series based on it. Previously, AnimEigo licensed a Japanese 1972 live-action film version and its five sequels.

Update: Deadline also notes that 1212 Entertainment is producing an adaptation of Taito's Space Invaders game.