Hola Dannie aqui,
The good folks at Collider.com broke the news today that Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro is set to write and direct "Zanbato" after he finishes up his "Pinocchio" project for Netflix. Guillermo ("Shape of Water," "Pans Labyrinth," "Cronos," "Hellboy" and "Blade II") will be penning the script alongside Vanessa Taylor ("Jack & Bobby," "The Amazing Mrs. Novak," "Hope Springs," "Game of Thrones," "Divergent," "The Shape of Water," and the upcoming "Hillbilly Elegy"). Seeing as Guillermo and Vanessa rocked all of our worlds with "The Shape of Water" I am certain "Zanbato" will as well. "Zanbato" is being backed by Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot according to Collider.com. Cool an Abrams del Toro film interesting.
Some of you may be wondering, what the heck a Zanbato is?!? According to Wikipedia-
Zanbatō (斬馬刀), an especially large, single-edged sword dating to the Heian period of historical Japan. The name zanbatō translates to "horse-slaying sword" or "horse-chopping saber." Original examples came from Song Dynasty China and were employed by anti-cavalry infantry in the same manner.[1]
You know those gigantic swords that are so darn popular in anime and video games like Final Fantasy.
The plot of del Toro's "Zanbato" is being closely guarded the guys and gals however over at Collider found out that the film revolves around a 10-15-year-old girl who has insanely gifted fighting skills. Collider said, " think Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass or the title character in Alita: Battle Angel." Their sources described the girl's character as a ninja which Guillermo immediatly denied when he took to Twitter.
If I was a betting woman, I'd wager that this will be a cursed blade movie. That's part of the fun of writing about these projects. You get to allow your mind to wander and imagine what the heck del Toro's planning to do with "Zanbato." The all but empty IMDB page for "Zanbato" states that the film is an action sci-fi film so, what is El Gordo planning for us? The idea of a del Toro directed tiny 10-15-year-old girl slicing and dicing with a Zanbato sword has me very excited about this project, Guillermo has never let me down as a filmmaker, and the little I know about "Zanbato" has me chomping at the bit. What do all of you think about del Toro and Abrams teaming up? What do you folks think of the idea of a 10-15-year-old Zanbato wielding protagonist? It has to be a magical sword as, how will the little lady swing such a heavy weapon, right?
Stay Strong, Live Good, Love Movies!
Dannie H.L. Knowles aka Pekosa Peligrosa
