Lone Wolf And Cub Live-Action Adaptation Adds Fast And Furious Producer

The adaptation of popular manga series Lone Wolf and Cub has found a writer to pen its script. The project, which has been in the works on-and-off for over a decade at Paramount Pictures, has hired Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker to write the film. The screenwriter used Twitter to celebrate the news, simply tweeting an image from the manga.

This news was originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter, who points out that Justin Lin--the director behind four entries in the Fast and Furious franchise--is producing the adaptation, along with Kamala Films and Marissa McMahon. THR also notes that Lin is hoping to direct the feature.

The story follows a Shogun executioner who is left devastated when his entire house is murdered--save for his newborn son. He then raises the boy as a warrior with the two becoming assassins, while seeking out revenge against those behind the plot to kill their family.

This will not be the first time the manga has been adapted. Previously, six live-action movies were released in Japan between 1972 and 1974. A seventh film, 1980's Shogun Assassin, was dubbed in English for American and British audiences. Rather than producing a new film, Shogun Assassin was edited together using footage from the first and second movies.

This film comes after another Paramount adaptation of a manga--Ghost in the Shell--was met with average reviews from critics and opened to a lackluster box office performance. Lone Wolf and Cub currently has no scheduled release date.