‘Shōgun’s Takehiro Hira, And Akira Emoto Join Brendan Fraser’s ‘Rental Family’ At Searchlight

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE:  BAFTA Award nomineeTakehiro Hira (‘Shōgun’, Gran Turismo) and Japanese Academy Award winner Akira Emoto have rounded out the cast of Searchlight‘s Rental Family directed by Hikari (Beef) and starring Whale Best Actor Oscar winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Mari Yamamoto (Pachinko).

Cameras are now rolling in Japan with production to wrap around May. A release date will be set in the future. Deadline first told you about the project which follows a lonely, down and out American actor (Fraser) who is living in Tokyo.

He starts working for a Japanese “rental family” company to play various stand-in roles in other people’s lives. Along the way, he forges some surprising human connections and discovers unexpected joys within his built-in family. “It’s an absolute dream to bring Rental Family to the world,” said Hikari. “I am truly so thankful for my collaboration with my partners at Searchlight and Sight Unseen and for their never-ending support, our wonderful cast and crew for their hard work and dedication putting this film together, and foremost, the multi-talented, incredibly caring and soulful Brendan Fraser for willfulness to be our hero on this journey.” “This is such an exciting project for us, and one that we know will resonate widely,” said Matthew Greenfield, President of Searchlight Pictures. “With Hikari, we’ve assembled the perfect cast and production team, and we cannot wait for everyone to see this film.” The comedic drama is produced by Eddie Vaisman and Julia Lebedev of Sight Unseen (Film Independent Spirit Awards winner A Thousand and One; Bad Education), Hikari, and Shin Yamaguchi (37 Seconds), and written by Hikari and Stephen Blahut (37 Seconds).