Legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa passed away back in 1998, the very same year that he was gearing up to begin production on an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” Kurosawa’s version of the story was to be titled The Mask of the Black Death, and the script has been sitting on a shelf for the past twenty years.
That shelved script, believe it or not, is now getting a second chance at life!
Indiewire reports that Chinese studios Huayi Brothers and CKF Pictures will work together to produce a film based on the late Kurosawa’s twenty-year-old script. The story takes place in Russia. As humanity faces the threat of a deadly disease at the beginning of the 20th century, the country’s prince hides inside his palace, ignoring the hardships and suffering of his people.
Said CFK founder Chen Kuo-Fu:
Mask is one of Kurosawa’s films that never made it to the big screen. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we make the film for him?’
The plan is to release The Mask of the Black Death into theaters in 2020.
