After the success of transforming the hit video game Mortal Kombat into a blockbuster movie, Threshold Entertainment’s Chairman and CEO, Larry Kasanoff, sets out on his newest endeavor. This past March, Threshold Entertainment announced its acquisition of Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s 1994 Ninja Scroll animated film. Threshold Entertainment will re-release Ninja Scroll as a live action movie with additional plans for television, live action stage tours, video games, and music. Larry Kasanoff takes a timeout to give Akadot an exclusive interview and a sneak peek into their latest project.

Do you know much about anime?

Larry Kasanoff: Yes, I’m a big fan of anime.

How did you get the inspiration to do a live-action Ninja Scroll movie?

LK: If you go into any Blockbuster or video store and ask them what their favorite anime is, everyone says they love Ninja Scroll.

What attracted you the most to Ninja Scroll?

LK: Jubei, he's a great character. He's a Ronin and he makes the ultimate samurai mistake, he gets involved.

Now, what's the movie going to be? Are you going to be doing an entirely new movie, a sequel, a remake, or maybe something loosely based on Ninja Scroll?

LK: We're essentially doing a remake. We're not bound to every word, but it's already such a great story. We really liked the style of the original film. We're even planning to shoot some of it in the same style as the anime.

A question on behalf of the action and monster movie fans; Are the eight devils of Kimon going to be in the movie?

LK: Certainly the majority of the Eight Devils will be in there. We like to think, 'Let's surprise them,' though, so we might change one devil, add a new one.

Any ideas yet as to who'll direct and star? Are you planning on getting big name people on the film?

LK: We have a ton of ideas for casting and directors. But, this project isn't the type to rest on names. Some people might be well known, others you'll probably have never heard of before.

Is the film going to involve a lot of martial arts?

LK: Yes, we'll be training the leads in martial arts.

So you might have another Ray Park (aka Darth Maul) type of character in Ninja Scroll?

LK: Funny you should mention that. I discovered Ray Park. He was a stunt guy in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

Do you think the Sword fighting scenes in movies like Star Wars: Episode One set the bar for sword fighting in main-stream movies?

LK: I don't think Star Wars: Episode One set the bar for sword fighting in movies at all. If it is, we can definitely live up to it. [laughs]

How realistic is the fighting going to be?

LK: We'll be working mostly with real swords and swordplay, but we'll also be doing stuff you've never seen before. We'll use both digital effects and real martial artists, but our preference is for live action.

Do you know yet what Ninja scroll will be rated?

LK: We're debating on whether it should be rated R or PG-13. With an R rating we can add more material, but with PG-13 we can have a wider audience base.

There's a lot of violence in Ninja scroll, how could it possibly be PG-13?

LK: In order to die or be killed [in PG-13], a person has to be inhuman in some way. Also, you can't have blood or nudity.

Are you working on anything else right now?

LK: We're also working on $50 million digital feature called Food Fight. It's about a grocery store at night. After everyone leaves the food gets down off the shelves and starts interacting. We'll have M&M's, Aunt Jemima, and Chester Cheetah in there. Our own original characters will be the leads. The grocery store becomes a cityscape.

Is there any other anime that you have your eyes on?

LK: We have one more anime property in negotiations, but it's a secret.