Uh oh, Devin's writing about anime again.

The next film from V For Vendetta director James McTiegue and his producin' buddies the Wachowskis is called Ninja Assassin, but the site Kung Fu Rodeo has gotten their hands on a casting call sheet that indicates the movie might be a disguised version of Ninja Scroll, an anime movie which I intuit is about ninjas.

I have to take the site's word for it, even though it seems like only one name from the casting sheet is mentioned in the Ninja Scroll wiki page, and that name is Jubei, the main character. It should be noted that Jubei is the name of a legendary samurai, so it's quite possible that Ninja Assassin's Jubei is, like the Jubei of Ninja Scroll, an homage. Or possibly Ninja Assassin is about that legendary Jubei, previously played by Sonny Chiba.

In fact, the more I read about Ninja Scroll, the less convinced I am that Ninja Assassin is related. However, thanks to this likely bullshit rumor, I have now read this sentence:

Although he has the clear advantage as Jubei cannot even scratch his stony hide, he begins to fall apart due to the poison received from raping Kagero.

Head to Kung Fu Rodeo for the casting breakdown but take his theories with a grain of salt.