“Fast & Furious” star Sung Kang revealed in a recent interview with South China Morning post that he’s currently working on the live-action film adaptation of a Japanese manga, Initial D, based on the classic street racing manga by Shuichi Shigeno. Kang will helm the Initial D movie, which he described as a “big-budget” project.
Initial D was written and illustrated by Shigeno. It was published in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine from 1995 to 2013. The story takes place in the world of Japan’s illegal street racing during the late 1990s. It centers around 18-year-old Takumi Fujiwara, a tofu delivery driver who discovers his extraordinary talent in car racing by driving Toyota AE86.
The manga was initially spawned into a six-part anime series which lasted for 81 episodes, airing from 1998-2014. It also received several anime movie spin-offs, a live-action film in 2005 which starred Taiwanese singer Jay Chou, Japanese actress Anne Suzuki, and Hong Kong actor Edison Chen.
In his interview, “It’s about cars and drifting and cool things like that,” Kang said. “Almost a “Rocky” or “Karate Kid.” A fun, big-budget movie that expresses my love affair for cars.”
Besides the “Initial D” movie, Kang is also working on a biographical drama based on his childhood experience living in Georgia with a biracial family. “I want to get that out in the world,” he said. “It’s about my father and mother. There’s a fire under that one because I want to honor my father, who’s not too healthy, before it’s too late.”
He hasn’t yet provided a timeline for when this movie will get made. For now, he’s promoting his directorial debut, the horror/comedy “Shaky Shivers,” while also developing another, autobiographical film about growing up in an interracial household in Georgia.