“I call it a story of revenge and impossible love. The samurai become outcast and decide to enact revenge on the person who is responsible for the death of their lord.”

Reeves plays  “an outsider, a kind of half-breed with a mysterious past, who’s in love with the princess and she’s in love with me, but we can’t be together.”

Now, swords.

“[I] just finished a sword fight a couple of weeks ago with a great actor named Hiroyuki Sanada. He’s fantastic.”

He IS fantastic. You probably know him best from swor fighting with Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 3 or beating the crap out of Jack and Sayid on the final season of “Lost.” What? I didn’t say he was fantastic at selecting projects. (MTV)

Babel‘s Rinko Kikuchi, Hiroyuki Sanada, Kou Shibasaki, and Tadanobu Asano have all joined the cast. Four down, forty-three to go.

Directed by Ridley Scott‘s ward, Carl Erik Rinsch, the 3D blockbuster tells the story of forty-seven samurai who force their master to commit ritual suicide after attacking a court official. They then spend years planning revenge on the official and take their own lives after his. Seems… productive? (Variety)

_{In this dystopian future society Cirque de Soleil is ALWAYS in town!}

Commercial director Carl Erik Rinsch, protege of Ridley Scott and all around badass visual artist, is stretching his legs for helming duties on Logan’s Run for WB/Joel Silver. Rinsch was originally attached to the Alien prequel until Papa Ridley Bear decided to direct himself. In the meantime, he made an awesome short entitled The Gift for Philips that showcases his skillz, and basically proclaims, "Yeah, you should probably give me a sci-fi feature."

Rinsch is currently in production on 47 Ronin, a movie where Keanu Reeves gets to pretend to be a samurai like Tom Cruise did, and he intends to move right to Logan’s Run after. The plot of the 1976 film and 1967 novel involved a dystopian future society that controlled the population by killing everyone at age 30 (21 in the book). Those who try to escape their destiny are known as a “Runners”, and are hunted down by operatives known as Sandmen. The main character of the story is a Sandman named Logan who says hell no to losing the best years of his life and bolts. Being executed once you get to legal drinking age? Way to harsh a mellow, Government. (/Film)

_{Don’t drink and drive, Drunk-Rupert-Everett-Servant-Robot.}

Since District 9 struck box office gold without the use of 3D, Hollywood has been eager to buy up and adapt enticing sci-fi shorts. So it’s no surprise that a bidding war has broken out over commercial director Carl Erik Rinsch‘s The Gift, a look at a futuristic, dystopian Moscow where a robo-butler is hunted down for a box containing either miniature unicorns or rare Lisa Frank stickers. That outcome all depends on how literal Russian-version of Ricky Jay was being. From THR:

On Wednesday, the day the short came out, a bidding war broke out between several studios — longtime rivals Warner Bros. and Fox are in the mix, according to sources — who see feature potential in the short. Some speculate the project will end up at Fox, because Rinsch is part of the stable of RSA, Ridley Scott’s commercial house that produced the short, and Scott’s longtime association with Fox.

Rinsch was actually originally attached to the Alien prequel but was later ousted so papa bear Ridley Scott could take the wheel. Maybe Ridley will throw Rinsch his long-gestating Monopoly project. I’d love to see his gritty commentary on the stark living conditions of St. James Place and its neighboring prison.

Check out the short after the jump. WARNING: Eligible viewers must pass a saliva scan…

Parallel Lines – The Gift, by Erik Rinsch – Watch more Funny Videos