14 Facts About Ryuhei Kitamura

Ryuhei Kitamura is a Japanese film director, producer, and screenwriter.

In 1997, Ryuhei Kitamura directed and produced the short film Down to Hell, which received a positive response from students, teachers, and an award which motivated Ryuhei Kitamura to seriously pursue a film career.

Ryuhei Kitamura went on to independently finance and direct his feature film debut Versus.

Ryuhei Kitamura spent more of his adolescent years at the cinema than school.

Ryuhei Kitamura chose Australia because most of his influences are Australian, such as George Miller, Russel Mulcahy, Peter Weir, and INXS.

In 2002, Ryuhei Kitamura directed the short film The Messenger: Requiem for the Dead as part of the Jam Films project, as well as Alive.

Ryuhei Kitamura collaborated with director Yukihiko Tsutsumi in the Duel Project, in which the two challenged one another to produce the best dueling movie with minimal production time and budget, with Aragami being Kitamura's contribution.

Also in 2003, Ryuhei Kitamura served as producer for the film Battlefield Baseball, the directorial debut of Versus co-writer Yudai Yamaguchi.

Ryuhei Kitamura directed 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars, the 28th installment in the renowned kaiju franchise.

In 2008, Ryuhei Kitamura made his American filmmaking debut with Midnight Meat Train based on Clive Barker's short horror story of the same name.

In 2018, Ryuhei Kitamura directed a segment in the anthology horror film Nightmare Cinema.

Ryuhei Kitamura is set to direct the slasher film Black Friday 3D, based on a screenplay by Joe Knetter.

Ryuhei Kitamura is attached to direct Marble City, a revenge film written by Tom Sjolund, as well as Gun Monkeys, from a screenplay by Lee Goldberg based on the novel by Victor Gischler.

In May 2013, Ryuhei Kitamura confirmed that he has written the script for Versus 2, and that Tak Sakaguchi would likely reprise his role from the original film.