Keanu Reeves is set to bring his action-hero credentials to a new stop-motion samurai epic after confirming he will star in Hidari.
Keanu Reeves is set to bring his action-hero credentials to a new stop-motion samurai epic after confirming he will star in Hidari
The 61-year-old actor revealed his involvement in the project through a video message shown at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where director Masashi Kawamura and producer Noriko Matsumoto unveiled fresh details about the feature.
The announcement comes as Keanu continues to be closely associated with the John Wick franchise, with the action series remaining one of his defining screen roles alongside The Matrix.
The filmmakers described Hidari as an action-packed stop-motion adventure combining Japanese history, fantasy and handcrafted animation, with every frame created by hand using carved wooden puppets.
Keanu told fans said: “I think that the stop-motion and what they’ve done, their hope and ambition is very cinematic. It can be both big scale and very intimate, and with the script they have developed, I think it’s extraordinary. I want to see that movie and I want to be in that movie.
“I’m very excited to move forward and have the opportunity to play the role, to be a part of it. It will be something very special to bring to the world.”
Masashi described the project by saying: “Imagine John Wick set in feudal Japan and performed by wooden puppets on steroids.”
The story draws inspiration from the folklore surrounding Hidari Jingorō, the mysterious 17th-century master carpenter whose existence has long been debated.
Masashi added: “Nobody knows if he really existed or not. He’s surrounded by a lot of mystery, which I felt was a very interesting character to use as the center of my story. People even said that he could breathe life into wood.”
He also said: “When I heard that, I thought: That’s exactly what we do in stop-motion. We move inanimate objects and try to create life.”
Rather than using conventional animation models, the filmmakers have opted to build every character from carved wood in keeping with the legend itself.
Masashi said: “Exactly like the ones (Hidari Jingorō) actually crafted himself. The material and the technique become part of the story itself.”
Presenting the project during Annecy’s panel Finding a Shared Vision: Co-Production with Japan, which also highlighted A New Dawn by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya and On the Killing Road by Tomofumi Inoue, Masashi explained every frame of Hidari is being animated by hand.
He said: “That’s the kind of film we want to create. Hidari is a samurai action film that blends the explosive energy of anime with the handcrafted aesthetic of stop-motion.”
The film follows a young master carpenter rebuilding Edo Castle before a conspiracy leaves him without his mentor, his fiancée and his right arm.
Surviving the attack, he fashions a deadly wooden prosthetic limb and turns his carpentry skills into weapons as he battles mechanical soldiers and a giant robot threatening the city of Edo.
Masashi said: “We’re going to do this all in stop-motion, guys. It’s going to be crazy.”
He added the filmmakers intended to combine “actual history with fantasy elements to craft an entertaining story for all ages”, describing the emotional core of the film as “really about this one man trying to rediscover himself after turning to destruction”.
After unveiling a teaser which has attracted more than five million YouTube views, Kawamura said the team had coined the term “Wood Punk” to describe the project’s distinctive visual identity.
He said: “Every grain, every hand-carved chisel marks on the wood. We really want to emphasize that in our film. We kind of coined ‘Wood Punk’ as the world we want to create.”
Addressing the choice of animation, Masashi added: “The question we often get is, ‘Why are you doing this in stop-motion?’ Because we f****** love it! It’s a fabulous technique, but unfortunately it’s considered to be something maybe more nostalgic for a smaller audience. We, as a team, really wanted to shatter that perception and create something very different.”
He also contrasted the painstaking production with advances in artificial intelligence.
Masashi said: “In a world where you could almost generate a film in three seconds using AI – if you don’t give a s*** about quality – we’re doing something opposite. It’s a whole film about craftsmanship.”