Last Samurai star to topline aviation disaster story

Variety reports that Last Samurai star Ken Watanabe will star in the Japanese production Shizumanu taiyo, a.k.a. The Sun That Doesn’t Set, a film to be based on the story of a 1985 plane crash that caused 520 deaths, the most in Japanese airline history.

Watanabe is attached to play the head of an airline union. Setsuro Wakamatsu, who directed the 2000 Japanese terrorist hostage thriller Whiteout, will direct the film, from a script based on a novel about the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 173 by Toyoko Yamasaki. Shooting is scheduled to begin in January, with shoots in New York, Iran, Kenya and Japan.

Film Fetish Trivia: Watanabe will next be seen with Jackie Chan, in the action drama The Shinjuku Incident, then he’ll play Mr. Tall in the vampire film Cirque du Freak, along with The Punisher Ray Stevenson, Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Orlando Jones and Willem Dafoe.