One Of The Best TV Directors Ever Is Finally Making A Movie – And It Sounds Incredible

It used to be a rite of passage: up-and-coming directors would first cut their teeth on commercials, work their way up to television shows to develop a strong body of work, and finally burst onto the scene with movies after proving that they have what it takes to handle much larger productions. That filmmaking pipeline has become a thing of the past in the last few decades, but one bona fide talent is taking his cues from a more old-fashioned era. The final result is one of the more exciting projects we've heard about it some time.

Even if you don't quite know his name just yet, you've seen his work on "Atlanta," "Barry," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," and several of Donald Glover's music videos performed under the stage name Childish Gambino. Now, director Hiro Murai is taking his biggest step yet into Hollywood with his feature film debut ... and he's teaming up with an appropriately big-name production company, too. Indie-supporting studio A24 has announced that Murai is helming a movie that's described as a "new samurai epic" titled "Bushido." Everyone involved is playing coy on exact plot details, but we do know that it will be "a high-stakes action film set against the backdrop of feudal Japan." There's no word on a cast just yet, but it's safe to assume that A24 will spare no expense bringing this script to life. And speaking of which, Murai is joining forces with one of the most promising writers around.

Whatever Hiro Murai and A24 have in store for us with "Bushido," it's almost certainly going to be a can't-miss event. It's no surprise that the studio would trumpet the news with a buzzy announcement earlier today, despite the fact that the specifics of the plot, cast, and crew are being kept close to the vest at this early point in development. What we do know, however, is that the script will be a worthy match for such a distinctive visual artist. Murai will be directing a screenplay by Henry Dunham, a writer with very few official credits to his name but whose previous film is well worth a watch. Dunham also wrote and directed "The Standoff at Sparrow Creek," the 2018 thriller that /Film's Matt Donato reviewed at the time and called, "Exquisitely tense and heated to a furious boil."

Murai and Dunham will also produce the film, alongside horror director Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen's Square Peg production company and 2AM, which previously teamed up with A24 on "Bodies Bodies Bodies" and Celine Song's "Past Lives," with the Nicole Kidman-starring "Babygirl" and Song's next movie starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal next on the docket. No release date has yet been announced, but you can bet that /Film will be keeping close tabs on what's shaping up to be an event in every sense of the word. Stay tuned!