It takes two years of your life to make a movie, and to me that's priceless. If I am gonna spend that kind of time pouring my blood and tears into it, then I wanna make sure I learn something on the way. That is what life is all about anyhow, I guess, growing and learning and then realizing you know nothing at all." The $25m action film is produced by Moshe's Los Angeles-based Picturesque Films and Ram Bergman Productions, and is fully financed by Keith Calder's Snoot Entertainment. Snoot Entertainment was founded in February 2004 to independently develop, finance and produce both commercial genre-oriented live-action films and CG animated features with broad audience appeal. In a 2008 interview, Calder said. "I've always loved movies in the 'no-name stranger' coming to town and ending up in a bigger struggle (genre)... I think [Bunraku] is an opportunity to take this genre and spin it on its head and bring a unique and strong visual style to it." Acclaimed production designer Alex McDowell is co-producing the film. Asked about his first production in a 2009 interview, McDowell said he "met with Moshe, the director of Bunraku, and his producer Nava Levin a couple of years ago, originally to consult with them. His project was such an interesting and provocative blend of genres and technique that I got hooked and helped them to set up an innovative approach to pre-production that integrated pre-visualization, storytelling and design into a new fluid and low budget workspace for the creative team. The story is set on a theatre stage in a folded paper world where Russian gangsters, cowboys and samurai warriors come together in inevitable and never-ending battle. It's an elegantly choreographed dance of revenge, honor and friendship...It's cool!" IM Global is handling worldwide sales. Visual development Snoot FX, a division of Snoot Entertainment, and Origami Digital LLC are responsible for all the animation and visual effects work on Bunraku. The movie will mix CGI and practical sets to create the world of Bunraku. In a 2008 interview, Hartnett, who was instrumental in getting the film Sin City made, compared the look of Bunraku to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, in that it will play out (or at least appear to play out) in one long, unedited take. Hartnett explained "It's in the vein of Sin City or something like that, where the world doesn't look like reality