Scott Adkins to star in Florentine’s ‘Ninja’

This, my friends is news to warm the heart of any modern martial arts movie lover. THE SHEPHERD and UNDISPUTED 2 co-star Scott Adkins will be making his leading debut in an upcoming all-out ninja flick by action director Isaac Florentine.

The news comes to us courtesy of the “Scott Adkins Fanz” forum and website where an early plot summary for NINJA from the film’s production company Nu Image is posted.

The gist of the story is that a young ninja in Japan runs away to America with a woman expected to marry against her will. Her angry husband-to-be is a yakuza boss who follows them to New York with a gang of assassins in tow to get revenge. Using his fighting skills, the ninja fends them off initially. Yet after his girlfriend disappears, he is forced into what is described as an “epic battle on a moving train.” The ninja is badly beaten, allowing a local detective trying to piece together what’s going on to catch up with him. Once recovered, the ninja teams with the detective to take on the yakuza boss and his assassins that include a female ninja, aka a kunoichi and a blind ninja. Another intriguing element is that the ninja develops “modern versions of the ninja’s arsenal” to take on an army of assassins.

The original synopsis refers to the hero as being Japanese, at least in name, suggesting the script was originally written with someone else in mind to play the lead. It’s no major loss. Adkins may not be Japanese but his screen fighting skills are world class and it’s about time this British-born actor finally gets a chance to become a martial arts star. Who would have guessed it would be in a new modern ninja flick?

Prospects for this movie are huge, given the right circumstances. Florentine has repeatedly proven himself to be a highly capable action director with a genuine love and understanding for martial arts screen fighting. Given a respectable budget and enough creative freedom, NINJA could even give the upcoming Wachowski Brothers film, NINJA ASSASSIN, some competition. One thing is for sure, Rain ain’t got nothing on Scott Adkins and he’ll need all the overblown digital wizardry the Wachowskis will undoubtedly throw at him.

For now, Adkins has been keeping busy on the shoot for X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE where he plays one of several Weapon X operatives going against Hugh Jackman, who reprises his role from the X-MEN films.

Adkins is also expected to reprise his role as Russian underground fighting champ “Uri Boyka” in Florentine’s UNDISPUTED 3. This time, he assumes the role of the main protagonist. Having suffered a crippling defeat at the hands of American boxing champion George Chambers (Michael Jai White) at the end of the previous movie, he is given a titanium knee replacement that becomes his secret weapon for deadly knockouts. He is then transferred to a Chinese prison where he is forced to compete in an annual death match and eventually leads a prison riot.

Good stuff coming from the power team of Scott Adkins and Isaac Florentine. It looks like 2009 is going to be the year of the ninja.

Tags: Isaac Florentine, ninja, Scott Adkins, upcoming