New Regency has plans to adapt Stephen Hunter’s “The 47th Samurai” into a feature film, to be titled The Sword. The Hollywood Reporter has the news, saying that the studio has brought aboard Robert Kamen (The Fifth Element, Taken) to draft the screenplay. Released in 2008, the novel is part of Hunter’s “Bob Lee Swagger” series and is officially described as follows:
One afternoon Bob Lee Swagger gets a surprising visitor: a retired Japanese Colonel named Philip Yaho has researched the battles on Iwo Jima and believes Swaggers father killed his on Mount Suribachi. He is also searching for the miitary sword his father used in the battle. Swagger manages to track it down and personally delivers it to Yano in Tokyo. When they examine it, it turns out to be not an old standard issue military weapon, but an ancient samurai sword, a national treasure. A few days later, the Yano family is murdered, their house burned to the ground, and the sword stolen. Compelled to solve the crime and recover the blade, Swagger enters not only Tokyos criminal underbelly, but also the violent, obsessive world of the Samurai.
“The 47th Samurai” is preceded by three Swagger adventures, “Point of Impact,” “Black Light” and “Time to Hunt.” “Impact” was adapted into the 2007 film Shooter, directed by Antoine Fuqua.
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura will produce The Sword.
