Director Hideo Nakata, best known for helming the Japanese horror film Ringu as well as the American sequel The Ring Two, is now looking to tackle an adaptation of the graphic novel The Suicide Forest.  From author El Torres and artist Gabriel Hernandez, The Suicide Forest centers on a vast forest outside Tokyo known as the most famous suicide spot in the world.  Legend tells that the spirits of past suicides roam among the trees, and an American must enlist the help of a forest ranger to help free him from the spirit of his ex-girlfriend who has resorted to haunting him on a vengeful mission (as all dead ex-girlfriends are wont to do)

There are currently four issues of The Suicide Forest, but it appears Book 1 is the one that’s being adapted here. Deadline reports that Nakata is attached to direct the live-action adaptation for producers Roy Lee and Taka Ichise.  Lee produce the American remakes of The Ring and The Grudge, as well as The Departed.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for The Suicide Forest.

And they say Hollywood has run out of ideas!  Neil Marshall’s latest film, the Roman actioner Centurion, opens today in the U.S., and the filmmaker has just committed to his next: Underground.  Scripted by David Cohen, the horror thriller is set in the world of gourmet underground supper clubs.  Deadline asked the producers  if cannibalism — featured in Marshall’s Doomsday — played a part.  They responded, “the protagonist is an ambitious young chef who ventures into the terrifying underbelly of extreme cuisine.”  That’s not a no…  The film is housed at Ozla Pictures under producers Taka Ichise (The Grudge) and Erin Eggers (The Hoax).

Following The Descent, Marshall has a small cult following — from the scarce details at hand, this sounds like the type of film a director with a small cult following ought to make.  Marshall was credited as the sole writer on each of his first four features, so it should be interesting to see him work from the ideas of another