By James White | Posted 20 Mar 2019

Underdog Japanese horror hit One Cut Of The Dead survived some slings and arrows on it way to the screen, finding success despite a limited original release in its home country and barely seeing screens outside of it (after a bootleg version was released to Amazon here, it got a small launch in January). But with that success comes the interest of US companies, and now a remake is in the works,

Writer/director Shin'ichirô Ueda's micro-budgeted horror follows a crew shooting a low-budget zombie movie in an abandoned World War II facility. Already struggling with cranky, underpaid (or unpaid) cast, the stakes rise again when real undead creatures stalk the set.

Now Japan-based American producer Patrick Cunningham, who has worked on the likes of Martha Marcy May Marlene, has picked up the rights (now that issues of plagiarism arriving from a stage play by one of the filmmaker's friends have been ironed out) for a suitably thrifty-budgeted redo. "The goal is for as many people as possible to see it," Cunningham says. "We will know more about the direction it will take once we have attached a writer and director." Meanwhile, you can still check out the original on Blu-ray or via digital rental.

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