Tetsuo Three - Finally!
Screen Daily have some very good news for fans of nightmarish body horror and man-maching splatterpunk today, with their report on an imminent third film in Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo series. I've just done a handstand. If you haven't, you probably don't know the original films, each of which details the gradual and painful mutation of the protagonist from meek and fleshy human to metallised, mechanical cyborg killbot thing.
This latest episode is said to have its roots in Quentin Tarantino's request for Tsukamoto to write an English language take on the concept. Part way through, apparently, Tsukamoto found that American setting wasn't proving to be a fruitful location for his story and so he decided to return the narrative to Tokyo, where it seems to have become a sequel rather than a remake. Of course, having said that, the second film in the series is somewhere between sequel and remake anyway.
Currently the film only has the working title of Tetsuo Project. Tsukamoto took up not only the writing and directing duties but he was also, as we fans have come to expect, the DOP, production designer, editor and actor. Also in the cast is the American Eric Bossick, who has a couple of video game voice over credits to his name as well as some experience as a cinematographer. I'm not 100% on this, but his inclusion does seem to suggest that the film will be, at least in part, in the Enlgish language. As does the following quote from producer Masayuki Tanishima:
I'm extremely thrilled to bring this new cyber-punk project from Tokyo to the global audience. I call this project a 'solid metal psychic battle action thriller'. This is a totally new Tetsuo for the 21st century.
As the film has just wrapped it is doubtful that the full thing will be presented at the coming Cannes market but perhaps a good sizzle reel will roll out, and possibly even make it online. Drillbits crossed.