Producer Adi Shankar has another unique upcoming project coming this year. After launching the mega popular Castlevania animated series on Netflix, an adaptation he serves as showrunner and the driving force of, Shankar also just partnered with Ubisoft to announce that he'll be working on adapting Assassin's Creed with them as an anime. But that's not all...
As a departure from these video game adaptations, Shankar is also working on something entirely different: a live-action film titled Bodied by director Joseph Kahn about race relations through the lens of battle rap. Bodied will premiere opening night at Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness.
Bodied represents something outside the usual realm of work for Shankar who serves a a producer on this one and who emphasizes that this is a creative collaboration more than anything. It was however made "off the grid" which seems fitting for Shankar's body of work (see: Bootleg Universe). Bodied is entirely by Joseph Kahn who's the driving force and vision behind it. It's Kahn's project and written by champion battle rapper Alex “Kid Twist” Larsen.
Related: Watch The Amazing Power/Rangers Short Film From Adi Shankar & Joseph Kahn
Kahn of course, is famous for his world class music videos where he's directed multiple Taylor Swift videos including "Bad Blood Ft. Kendrick Lamar" in addition to videos by Imagine Dragons ("Thunder"), Britney Spears ("Toxic"), Katy Perry ("Waking Up in Vegas"), and U2 ("Elevation"), and many others. He's also directed music videos for Eminem who's also part of the project serving as a producer alongside Paul Rosenberg and Jill Hardin. Eminem doesn't too often get involved with projects like this these days so with him, Shankar, With Shankar, Hardin, and Rosenberg, it's an impressive creative team.
Filmgoers will recognize Kahn's work as well from Torque, Detention, and more recently, the awesome Power/Rangers short film Kahn directed as part of Adi Shankar's Bootleg Universe which has over 21 million views. We reached out to Adi about today's announcement:
"It's time the film industry recognizes the genius that is Joseph Kahn. He's technically brilliant, creatively unparalleled. He has created most of the iconic global pop-cultural iconography over the last 20 years. Mark my words. He's the next Steven Spielberg."
Some of the talent featured in Kahn's film include Battle Rap superstars Dumbfoundead, Dizaster, Hollow Da Don, Pat Stay, Loaded Lux, Arsonal, Rone, Conceited, Big T, Madness, Charron, and Charlamagne Tha God.
More: Adi Shankar Announces Assassin’s Creed Anime TV Series
Source: Adi Shankar