Kurosawa Production and the Chinese production company Jinke Entertainment have signed a deal that gives the latter production rights to all of Akira Kurosawa’s unfilmed screenplays. The deal excludes only The Mask of the Black Death which is already in production at another Chinese company.
The deal was announced in Cannes by Jinke Entertainment and Kurosawa Production. The latter was represented by Akira Kurosawa’s grandsons Ko Kurosawa, who is apparently the current head of Kurosawa Production, and Takayuki Katō, an actor who works as a consultant on the project.
The first film to be produced is Silvering Spear (working title), described as a Warring States period tale of an exceptionally talented samurai. While determined to use his talents for good, he ends up being manipulated by a group of bandits. Production has been said to begin in 2018.
No mention has been made in the press about the exact number of unfinished screenplays or what other films might follow Silvering Spear, which to my knowledge has been a totally unknown work until now, at least in the English language Kurosawa literature.