Live-Action ‘Kite’ Adaptation with Samuel Jackson Gets New Director

When the sudden news of Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis passing away surfaced last month, that left the adaptation of he Japanese anime movie Kite, starring Samuel L. Jackson, in limbo. The project was gearing up to start production when Ellis passed away, and it was unclear what would happen. Now a press release (found via The Film Stage) has revealed that South African director Ralph Ziman (Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema) will take over the project. In addition, Maleficent and Underworld: Awakening star India Eisley and The Great Gatsby and Flipped star Callan McAuliffe have both joined the cast. More below! The story doesn’t depart too much from the original anime as it follows a young woman (to be played by India Eisley) living in a failed state, post-financial collapse, where the corrupt security force profits on the trafficking of young women. Her father, a police officer, is killed, …