August 05, 2005

Samuel L. Jackson Picks Up Afro Samurai Sword

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

Mace Windu was a Jedi, but he was no superhero. And if anyone is going to play the lead in a live-action movie based on the Japanese comic Afro Samurai, who could it be but Samuel L. Jackson?

Jackson will star in and co-produce the adaptation of Takashi Okazaki's manga, which follows the futuristic adventures of the Afro Samurai on his mission to avenge the death of his father, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the series, Jackson's character, No. 2, battles his arch nemesis, No. 1, a three-armed gunman. The movie is slated to start production next year with a 2007 release expected. But Afro Samurai will appear on television before he hits the big screen. An animated adaptation is scheduled to debut on Spike TV in 2006, with Jackson voicing the lead.

Before you see him rockin' the 'fro, though, Jackson will appear alongside Christina Ricci in writer/director Craig Brewer's (Hustle and Flow) new movie, Black Snake Moan. In the film, which will also feature Justin Timberlake as Ricci's love interest, Jackson plays a bluesman named Lazarus who "cures" an anxious woman (Ricci) of her self-destructive nymphomania.