Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman to play African samurai Yasuke in upcoming action drama

Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman is set to topline action drama Yasuke, about the first black man who served as a samurai to a Japanese warlord.The 41-year-old actor will play the eponymous character, Yasuke, the Japanese name of a samurai of African origin who fought under a Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga during the 1580s.[caption id="attachment_4376347" align="alignnone" width="825"]

Chadwick Boseman. The Associated Press/ Jordan Strauss[/caption]According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project is based on the true story of the only known African to reach the samurai ranking in feudal Japan. Doug Miro of Narcos fame is writing the screenplay.The film will be produced by Eric Feig's Picturestart, De Luca Productions, Solipsist Films, and Xception Content. A director for the film is yet to be announced. De Luca, L'Heureux, Boseman and Logan Coles will serve as producers.Boseman's other projects include Netflix's upcoming drama Da 5 Bloods with Spike Lee. The story revolves around Vietnam veterans going back to the jungle to find their lost innocence and put their broken selves back together. He will also share screen space with JK Simmons, Sienna Miller and Taylor Kitsch in police thriller 17 Bridges. Boseman, who is also producing the film, will be playing a disgraced NYPD detective, who gets a shot at redemption when he gets involved in a city-wide hunt for a cop killer.(With inputs from Press Trust of India)