Ken Watanabe To Direct 442nd

By Fiona | Jun 20, 2010 | Movie News (1) Comment

Today we have information that Ken Watanabe, Oscar nominated actor, may be getting into the director’s chair to helm a World War II film titled 442nd. Sounds good?

Why not, we all know that he’s definitely a very talented actor (The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha, Letters from Iwo Jima, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, The Unbroken, Shanghai, Inception), so maybe this kind of story could be just the perfect one for his directorial debut.

Here’s the 442ND synopsis: “When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led to an executive order paving the way for the internment of Japanese-Americans, most Japanese Americans in Hawaii were discharged from military service. But 1300 soldiers in two National Guard battalions were retained.

Sent to the mainland, they formed with 100th Infantry Battalion. Months later, inspired by the success of that unit, 3000 volunteers were drawn from Japanese Americans interred in Hawaii and California, and at Camp Shelby in Mississippi they formed the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Soldiers of Japanese heritage were not allowed to fight in the Pacific Theater, and the 100th was originally assigned a support role. But when sent to Europe, the 442nd began to fight in Italy before aiding the invasion of occupied Southern France, and eventually pushing into Germany.

The 442nd showed incredible valor and also suffered high casualties. While rescuing 230 men from the 141st Infantry ‘Lost Battalion’ in October 1944, the unit lost 800 men.”

We definitely expect more details about this project, because, at this moment we only have information that Bill Gerber (from Gran Torino) will produce the film, but there’s still no word about the possible cast.

Anyway, for all Watanabe’s fans out there, he’s next to be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Inception which hits theaters July 16th.