Hideo Nakata To Visit THE SUICIDE FOREST

Between 1998 and 2002 Japanese director Hideo Nakata was responsible for a trio of classic films with The Ring, Dark Water, and the lesser known thriller Kaos. You can make a strong argument that Nakata was the director primarily responsible for driving the international success of the so called J-horror movement and, for a time, it appeared he could do no wrong. When on his game Nakata is simply a fabulous director, one of the very best in the world.

The problem is Nakata hasn't really been on top of his game since 2002's Dark Water. Yes, he's been busy since and some of his films have played to commercial success at home but he hasn't had a single critical success since Dark Water, Nakata's fizzling international career now standing as something of a symbol for the general flare out of Japanese commercial cinema in general over the past decade.

Producers Roy Lee and Taka Ichise are hoping to turn that around. The duo have set Nakata to direct a live action adaptation of El Torres / Gabriel Hernandez graphic novel The Suicide Forest, a ghost story set in the Aokigahara forest outside of Tokyo.

There is no screenwriter attached to the project yet but it clearly looks to be something that would play to Nakata's strengths. Here's hoping. Now if someone would just set Kiyoshi Kurosawa to work on something new ...