If The Ninja was published in 1980, it needed at least a year of work behind-the-scenes at the publisher to get there, and let’s speculate the manuscript was started maybe at least a half-year before that. Note: If you’ve never read the book, spoilers abound. And we’ll hear from the author himself on what could have been via a Vintage Ninja exclusive interview.Įd. Read on, we’re going to look that ‘long, torturous process’ while comparing the book to an actual script draft from one of the high-profile directors in question. So why wasn’t The Ninja the first, and biggest, ninja movie?Īfter a long process too tortuous to go into here, which included two high-profile directors and three screenwriters, the project was shelved when a new head of production was hired at 20th and put into turnaround all the projects the former head of production had green-lighted. The Ninja is the biggest ‘what-if?’ or ‘never-was’ or ‘if-only’ of the era. Much of it was lifted for low-budget movies like Revenge of the Ninja, while at the same time a host of A-list talent and Hollywood legends-in-the-making couldn’t manage to sustain its film development with a much bigger studio deal.
It was easily the biggest mass media property of the 1980s ninja boom, yet somehow never saw adaptation outside of print.
20+ weeks on The New York Times‘ Best Seller list, millions of copies in print, five sequels and enduring publication on all modern electronic platforms… Eric Van Lustbader‘s vanguard novel The Ninja turns 36 years old this month.
0 kommentar(er)
