In light of the ongoing global fight to prevent COVID-19 cases from further increasing, The Hollywood Reporter is bringing word that HBO Max has ultimately decided to follow suit with other major networks and streamers as they officially halts the production of director Michael Mann’s forthcoming series adaptation of Tokyo Vice. The Ansel Elgort-led series has been filming in Japan since March 5.
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J.T Roger will pen the scripts, which are based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. In his first ever TV role, Ansel Elgort will play an on-screen version of the author, an American journalist who follows the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption, chronicling his daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo, where nothing is what it seems.
Joining Elgort are Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins, The Last Samurai) as Hiroto Katagiri and Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim, Westworld) as a supervisor to Elgort’s reporter Jake Adelstein. Kikuchi was reportedly cast by Mann after the director pushed back hard against producer John Lesher, who reportedly had concerns over her English abilities albeit her bilingual skills.
Based on the 2009 memoir by Adelstein, the 10-episode series will be directed by Oscar nominee Michael Mann and will be adapted by Tony-winning playwright J.T. Roger, producer John Lesher and Endeavor Content. Elgort is pulling double duty as executive producer alongside John Lesher, Emily Gerson Saines, and Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, Shang-Chi).
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This marks the second original series for the platform along with the anthology Love Life from creator Sam Boyd, which is produced by Paul Feig and Jessie Henderson of FeigCo Entertainment. In addition to this pair of originals, the forthcoming platform has been bidding on projects and mining the Warner Bros. library for content.
Elgort is best known for his leading roles in films such as The Fault in Our Stars, Carrie, The Divergent films, Baby Driver and the most recent one The Goldfinch. He will next been seen as Tony in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story. Tokyo Vice marks his first TV role.
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