They are the stuff of legend, but for their victims they are all too real. Their swords and shuriken fly fast and, in the blink of an eye, cut to the bone, creating a bloody spray in the wake of the blade. The masters of stealth and dealers of death, these specters strike without warning and strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. No one is safe. Ninjas are the special forces of the martial arts world, and director James McTeigue and producers Joel Silver, Andy and Larry Wachowski and Grant Hill wanted to bring them to the screen as never before.
States producer Silver, "We each felt that the pure martial arts film is a kind of a subgenre that hasn't really had its due in the U.S. We were always talking about doing something like taking the legend of the ninja, which dates back to the 14th century, and dropping this silent killer into a truly modern world."
The filmmakers wanted to utilize the classic ninja movie structure in which an enigmatic master schools select children to become unbelievable fighters or assassins, who people in the "real world" of the film believe to be a myth. That is, of course, until their two worlds intersect and the disbelievers witness these incredible martial artists in action.
"Ninjas were the shadowy characters who always came out of the darkness," says director McTeigue, who also recalls the influences of his upbringing in Australia. "We got anime from Japan and a lot of the TV serials as well, like 'The Samurai' and 'The Phantom Agents'--shows that had elements of the folkloric ninja in them, where the characters were raised in an orphanage or the like. For this film, we talked about those classic elements, but also adding an edgy film noir aspect to it."
"It's no secret that each of us, Larry and Andy in particular, has a strong affinity for Japanese storytelling and culture," offers producer Hill, "but how does the world of the ninja wrap itself around the 21st century?"
That became the job of screenwriters Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski, who were brought on board to pen the script.
"I trained in karate all through college, and the martial arts have been a big part of my life for a long time," says Sand. "So to get to write the kind of ninja movie I've always wanted to see was a dream come true."
"I've always loved the genre, but it seemed like no one had made a serious ninja movie in a long time, at least not in the West," notes Straczynski. "Ninjas have been used so often for comic relief that it felt as if no one was taking them seriously any longer. The chance to make a movie that presented ninjas as being scary as hell was very appealing," he smiles, "and working with the Wachowskis is always rewarding and intellectually daunting because they both have these 12-story brains and you really have to be on your toes to keep up with them."
The screenplay began to take shape. Says Sand, "It's an origin story. The orphanage--the idea of these ninjas being a family in a twisted, dark way--and one man, Raizo, coming to terms with a substitute father who was the most awful father imaginable. Where Raizo came from as a character is exactly what the ninja clans are all about. They made him. Motivated by a lost love, his reacting against them rather than becoming what they had in mind, along with the story of the agent investigating the clans, made it a different type of a ninja movie than we'd ever seen."
"Is it nature that makes you the person you are, or is it nurture?" director James McTeigue poses the question, a central theme of "Ninja Assassin." "I feel as though we did what we set out to do and made a modern-day ninja film that has incredible action but is also grounded in great characterization."
Rain agrees. "The film blends a great story with a lot of depth and feeling, with some of the most spectacular, awesome action sequences. The guys who made this movie make great action, and this is no exception."
Says producer Grant Hill, "I think 'Ninja Assassin' will grab audiences' attention from the very first scene. It's a film that gets going quickly, and just keeps going."
Producer Joel Silver elaborates, "It's a fun, albeit bloody experience, but it also has themes of loyalty, honor and identity. For fans of the genre, it's a pure ninja movie--gritty and violent, with every kind of fighting, every type of martial arts you've ever seen, and some you haven't. It's a real kick-ass movie."

Casting
In order to be certain they could make the kind of film they all wanted to see, they had to find the perfect Raizo--someone who was not only able to take on the physical demands of the character's warrior side, but who could also be a believable leading man.
"The day that Rain did his first scene in 'Speed Racer,'" recalls Silver, "the Wachowski brothers called me and said, 'This guy is unbelievable. He's a natural. He is our dream come true.' And we began to plan 'Ninja Assassin' immediately."
McTeigue says, "Even though it was a relatively small role, Rain's physical ability was so good that we thought if we could do an all-out ninja movie, he would be the one to do it with."
"When we were working on that film, Larry and Andy approached me and asked if I would be interested in being a ninja," remembers Rain. "How could I say no to that? I told them, 'Tell me when and where and I'll be there.'"
Although Rain plays Raizo, the central role, the filmmakers knew that the real star of "Ninja Assassin" would be the stunning martial arts sequences, and to accomplish them they'd need the best. They called in legendary stunt choreographers Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch--who've worked with the Wachowskis, Silver and Hill since "The Matrix" days and who got their start as stunt coordinators on McTeigue's "V for Vendetta"--to help devise a style of fighting that would speak to the kind of movie they wanted to make.
"For this film, we didn't want to rely on wire work, camera tricks or visual effects," states Silver. "We wanted the verisimilitude of seeing and believing what's happening right in front of you. Chad and Dave thought outside the box and wanted to bring in the best in the business--parkour and free runners, acrobats, and guys from Jackie Chan's stunt team. They all worked together to deliver unbelievable stunt sequences above and beyond what we imagined."
The character of Raizo, played by Rain, is brought as a child to the orphanage run by Lord Ozunu, who heads the Ozunu Clan. There Raizo is trained to be a heartless assassin, but he also finds someone to give his heart to, Kiriko, another young trainee. Her terrible fate, however, seals Raizo's as well and he rejects the clan, making it his life's mission to try and stop them. Every time this shadowy collection of killers goes to commit a murder-for-hire, Raizo is there to use the fight skills they gave him against them. Raizo's main objective is to trace his way back to the secret location of the Ozunu clan's orphanage and to make sure that no more children are kidnapped, brutalized and turned into assassins. At the same, time he must prevent them from killing him as well.
Says Silver, "Raizo is so genuine, he is really trying to transcend the hand that was dealt him, to reject the monster who trained him, and become a better person than he was taught to be."
"Raizo is a great assassin, one of the best students Lord Ozunu has ever had," says Rain. "But the bloodshed gets to him, and he has to escape. But you can never leave openly. And by leaving, he must betray Ozunu, who will then stop at nothing to destroy Raizo. So Raizo leads a quiet, anonymous life…knowing that one day, Ozunu will find him."
The role of Raizo called for an actor with a special intensity, who could convey a lot of emotion in a very subtle way.
"Rain is smart and instinctive and incredibly dedicated," says McTeigue. "He was a joy to work with."
Silver adds, "Rain really is a magnetic personality. You can't take your eyes off of him, he commands the screen."
Operating in the outside world, Raizo must stay one step ahead of the clan. But the murders are being investigated, and one researcher at Europol stumbles onto the notion of the nine ancient clans that have trained assassins--ninjas--to perform murders for a fee: the price of a pound of gold. But she is getting too close, and she is now on the Ozunu clan's hit list. Raizo saves her life, and they are forced to go on the run together.
Naomie Harris plays agent Mika Coretti. "I just loved the character and felt a real connection with Mika," relates Harris. "She is different from any character I've played before. I really liked her passion and enthusiasm, and that she believes anything is possible, which is what I always believed as well. Like the fantastical is possible."
"Naomie absolutely got what we were trying to do," says McTeigue. "The character of Mika is really strong and Naomie saw that and completely took her on."
"Mika's investigating this bizarre myth, this legend, this rumor," says Sand. "Her obsession leads her into terrifying danger, but also leads her to the truth."
"Mika's work is really her entire life," says Harris. "So when she finds something, she is like a dog with a bone. She doesn't let go of it until she's worked everything out. She likes putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. She's found a lot of evidence to prove that ninjas exist, and she's not letting it go."
Mika's initial challenge is convincing her boss, Ryan Maslow, that she's onto something real. British actor Ben Miles, who plays the skeptical agent, says, "I play a kind of hardened cop. One of his young researchers, Mika, comes to him with a seemingly harebrained scheme about ninjas assassinating people now, in the 21st century. He tells her that she can't seriously think that some guys dressed in black with swords are going around knocking off these high-profile political figures. But Maslow doesn't always do things by the book; he has a bit of a maverick approach and may have his own plans, so he lets her go with it, and the movie takes on this suspenseful layer upon layer of who you can trust, who you can't trust, whose side should you be on. It's a great kind of clash of thriller, film noir and martial arts."
Miles, who first worked with McTeigue and the producers on "V for Vendetta," enjoyed working with his old friends again. "They have this verve and enthusiasm and a kind of unpredictability, so it was great fun on many levels. Plus getting to do all the action stuff, you can't beat it."
Through Mika's research, she helps Raizo find his way back to the source: the orphanage and his original master, Lord Ozunu. Legendary martial artist and famed ninja movie veteran Sho Kosugi--who has participated in more than 300 tournaments and numerous films, including five previous ninja movies--took on the role, which thrilled the filmmakers.
"If you've ever watched any ninja films from the 1980s, you know that Sho Kosugi is the ninja; he is the man," asserts McTeigue. "He was the only person who could impart the discipline of Lord Ozunu. He embodied the clan master." Of course, the actor was nothing like the character he played. "Every time he had to do something mean or aggressive, he did it, but as soon as I called 'Cut,' he'd say, 'Oh my gosh, he's a very bad man, that clan master!' And he'd start laughing and smiling."
Although he was playing a bad guy, Kosugi--who has studied martial arts since the age of five and who still practices about three hours daily--truly appreciated the thought that went into creating his character. "I was shocked when I saw the script, when I saw the name Ozunu, I smiled because what most people don't know is there was a real Ozunu, who was born in the Kinki District and is the ancestor of the Shugenja, mountain warriors who practiced Shugend&
333;. He's an ancestor of the ninjutsu. So the research was so good. To play this role, I was honored to do that."
Ozunu's strongest weapon in the fight against Raizo and Europol is his protégé and Raizo's onetime "brother" in the clan, Takeshi, played by Korean-American actor Rick Yune. Yune has something of a martial arts background himself, having qualified for the Olympic Trials in Taekwondo, the national sport of Korea, when he was 19. "Ozunu is a father figure to Takeshi, and he wants to emulate him, to stay loyal to him," offers Yune.
"This is Takeshi's family and this is what he's been brought up to be. He is all the things that Raizo did not want to become." The actor found his way into the character by connecting with a phrase he found in the script. "It says that ninjas only kill two kinds of people: those they're paid to kill and those who get in their way. All he wants to do is be the best ninja possible, and to get closer to Ozunu, his so-called father. So he lives by this code in order to stay true to his family, to the clan."
Raizo's only real friend at the orphanage is Kiriko, played by Kylie Liya Goldstein as a young girl and Anna Sawai as a teen, who tries to convince Raizo that there is a better life outside the dojo and away from the clan. Her punishment for trying to escape becomes the catalyst for Raizo's eventual desertion.
In the film, Ozunu kidnaps children from around the world--ostensibly lost children who don't have families--and brings them into the clan, giving them a family. "What we did initially to find the children," reveals McTeigue, "was go out to a lot of dojos throughout Berlin, where we'd be shooting. We then brought them in and trained them for a few months, and they became the other orphans who lived in the clan alongside young Raizo and young Takeshi as their brothers and sisters.
Being a part of that kind of family entails training, through a series of disciplines and over a number of years, to become a killing machine, an assassin who acts without a moment's hesitation.

The Stunts and live action
In an attempt to revamp the ninja genre and make it as cinematic as possible, the martial arts performed in the film are a hybrid of several styles. To design the fight sequences, the filmmakers turned to their stunt partners from the "Matrix" films and "V for Vendetta," award-winning stuntmen Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch, who run their own stunts and training company, 87Eleven. Both served as stunt coordinators as well as second unit directors on "Ninja Assassin."
"Part of the objective in making the film was to take it to another level, beyond what we'd all done before," says McTeigue. "To coalesce all the energies and the disciplines we've had in other movies and bring them into one required a certain level of knowledge and skill, and that's what Chad and Dave deliver every time. They know that stuff inside and out." Read more

Visualsing the film
"Ninja Assassin" unfolds in a variety of locations, including Germany, Japan and New York. Filming took place entirely in Berlin, but the filmmakers tried to give it an overall international flavor, with the help of production designer Graham "Grace" Walker. Walker, who has worked with Silver on a number of films, also has a fan in his director. Says McTeigue, "When I was growing up in Australia, Grace Walker was really one of the icons of Australian filmmaking." This was McTeigue's first opportunity to work with Walker, who says of McTeigue, "James was fabulous--extremely particular about what he wanted but that was great because it kept me on my toes, and I knew I was giving him exactly what he visualized."Read more

The costumes
The filmmakers knew that a key component in presenting ninjas in a modern context was the look, and enlisted the talents of costume designer Carlo Poggioli. "Carlo was great," says McTeigue. "He was another person who got what we were trying to do. We wanted the ninja costumes to be simple but textural. If you're going for the feeling of terror, with people emerging from the blackness, you need something that can dissolve into the shadows but, when they do appear and it's black on black, have some sort of texture. They're not just amorphous shapes that come out and you never really see anything."Read more


The filmmakers

JAMES McTEIGUE (Director) has more than 20 years of experience in the film industry. He is next set to direct "The Raven," a fictionalized account of Edgar Allen Poe's final days.
As a boy in Sydney, McTeigue was exposed to a variety of world cinema and television and was heavily influenced by ninja television shows like "Shintaro" and "Phantom Agents," and by films such as "Shinobi No Mono." He graduated from Sydney University, where he studied art and film.
McTeigue made his directorial debut helming the iconoclastic screen adaptation of the graphic novel "V for Vendetta." McTeigue came to the project through his relationship with the Wachowski brothers, for whom he served as the assistant director on all three "Matrix" films. His other previous film credits as an assistant director include "Speed Racer" and "Dark City

MATTHEW SAND (Story and Screenwriter) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was trained as an art historian, and spent many years working as an art dealer in Manhattan.
Since moving to Hollywood and becoming a professional screenwriter, Sand has worked on more than a dozen projects, including the upcoming films "The Summoner," "American by Blood," "The Red Star," directed by Timur Bekmambetov, and Denzel Washington's WWII drama "Brothers in Arms."

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI (Screenwriter) was recently nominated for a BAFTA Award for his screenplay for Clint Eastwood's critically acclaimed drama "Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie. He currently has several projects in development, including the sci-fi drama "World War Z," based on the Max Brooks novel, for director Marc Forster; "Shattered Union," a political thriller for producer Jerry Bruckheimer; "Forbidden Planet" for producer Joel Silver; and "Lensman," based on the novels from Edward E. Smith, for director Ron Howard.
Straczynski was born in New Jersey but raised all across the United States, having moved more than 20 times in his first 17 years. He began selling articles and short stories by the time he graduated high school and spent the next 14 years as a journalist, writing for the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Magazine, Penthouse, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the Los Angeles Reader and Time, Inc. In the course of that work he also picked up two bachelor degrees from San Diego State University in clinical psychology and sociology, with minors in literature and philosophy.
In 1986, Straczynski jumped ship from journalism to television, starting first in animation and then moving on to write for such series as "The Twilight Zone"; "Murder, She Wrote"; "Jake and the Fatman"; "Babylon 5," for which he won two Hugo Awards, the Saturn Award and the Ray Bradbury Award; TNT's "Crusade"; Showtime Network's "Jeremiah"; and "Nightmare Classics," for which he received a Writers Guild Award nomination. He currently has a TV series in development with Ron Howard for Fox Network, "Phoenix Rising."
For the last ten years, he has also been writing comics for Marvel Comics on such titles as The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he received the prestigious Eisner and Inkpot Lifetime Achievement Awards, The Fantastic Four, Thor and Silver Surfer: Requiem. He now also writes The Brave and the Bold for DC Comics

THE ART OF ORIGINAL FILMMAKING

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