“High and Low” remake moves forward: Mike Nichols to direct

Variety reports that the often mentioned Hollywood remake of High and Low is once again moving forward, with Mike Nichols (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, most recently Charlie Wilson’s War) set to direct for Miramax Films.

With David Mamet (The Untouchables, The Verdict, most recently Redbelt) the screenwriter and Martin Scorsese named as a likely executive producer, it seems clear that this is the project that has been popping up every now and then for the past fifteen years, and which Scorsese himself was originally considering to helm.

Based on the above-mentioned people, this project seems to have the most potential from all the recent Kurosawa remakes. While it is difficult for me to predict what sort of roads Nichols’s direction will take, Mamet’s adaptation, considering his previous work, may well turn out to be far edgier than Kurosawa’s original.