Tokyo Vice (TV series)

Tokyo Vice
Genre	Crime drama
Based on	Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
Written by	J.T. Rogers
Starring	Ansel Elgort Ken Watanabe Rachel Keller Ella Rumpf Rinko Kikuchi
Original language(s)	English Japanese
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jake Adelstein Destin Daniel Cretton Ansel Elgort Brad Caleb Kane John Lesher Michael Mann Alan Poul J.T. Rogers Emily Gerson Saines Kayo Washio Ken Watanabe
Production location(s)	Tokyo, Japan
Production company(s)	Endeavor Content
Distributor	WarnerMedia Direct Wowow
Release
Original network	HBO Max

Tokyo Vice is an upcoming crime drama television series based on the 2009 book of the same name by Jake Adelstein.

Premise

Set in the late 1990s, American journalist Jake Adelstein relocates to Tokyo to report on corruption within the Vice squad.

Cast

• Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein, an American journalist from Missouri who moves to Tokyo. The longer he stays, the more he delves into the corruption of Tokyo's seedy underworld, where no one is as they seem.
• Ken Watanabe as Hiroto Katagiri, a detective in the organized crime division. He's a father figure to Adelstein who helps guide him through the thin and often precarious line between the law and organized crime.
• Rachel Keller as Samantha, an American expat living in Tokyo who makes her living as a hostess of the Kabukicho district. She guides many individuals from salarymen, to high end clients, and yakuza.
• Ella Rumpf as Polina, an Eastern European expat, and a struggling new hostess at the club with Samantha. She came to Tokyo to work as a model, and got pulled into the seedy underbelly of Kabukicho.
• Rinko Kikuchi as Adelstein's supervisor, a composite of the various colleagues and supervisors who worked with the real life Adelstein during his career.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	TBA	Michael Mann	J.T. Rogers	TBA (TBA)

Production

Development

Tokyo Vice was initially set up as a movie in 2013, with Daniel Radcliffe attached to star as Adelstein. Anthony Mandler was set to direct, and development was advanced enough to where a production start of mid-2014 was set. In June 2019, the project was re-purposed as a television series, receiving a 10 episode straight to series order by WarnerMedia to stream on their streaming service HBO Max. Ansel Elgort was set to executive produce the series, with J. T. Rogers writing and Destin Daniel Cretton directing the series. In October 2019, Michael Mann was hired to direct the pilot episode for the series and also serve as an executive producer of the series.

Casting

In addition to his executive producing announcement, Ansel Elgort was also set to star. In September 2019, Ken Watanabe was added to the cast. In February 2020, Odessa Young and Ella Rumpf were added to the cast. In March 2020, it was announced that Rinko Kikuchi joined the cast, and that shooting began the previous month in Tokyo. In October 2020, Rachel Keller was cast to replace Young.

Filming

Principal photography on the series was halted after six days due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, Japan. Production resumed on November 23, 2020 and was scheduled to conclude on June 6, 2021.

External links

• Tokyo Vice at IMDb