Ghosts. Robots. Aliens. To this august list of cool cultural icons we must of course add ninjas. They’re silent. They’re deadly. Some🐲 of them are teenage mutant turtles. And we’re all obsessed with them.

Whic🅠h means it’s a smart studio – in this case, Universal – that grabs hold of a recent ninja project and decides to give it a makeover. Shinobi, which was a hit in Japan in 2005, is the story of two rival warrior clans thrown even deeper into combat from mem𒁃bers from each side fall in love.

But far from planning a straight remake, the studio has hired director Max Makowski to move the setting to Hong Kong, and adding in the extra spice of a 160-year-old feud betwe🐻en multinational security forces to the tale of throwing-star-crossed lovers.

There’s no script ye✱t, but Universal hopes Makowsk💛i can crank one out and get shooting next year.