Hiro Murai to Make Feature Directorial Debut on Samurai Epic ‘Bushido’ for A24

The producer and director behind many classic episodes of “Atlanta,” “The Bear,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Station Eleven,” and more is finally making a movie.

Hiro Murai, the Emmy-winning producer and director, is set to make his feature directorial debut on “Bushido,” a samurai film and epic that will be set up at A24, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire. A24 is financing and producing.

“Bushido” is said to be an action film set during Feudal Japan, but specific plot details are being kept under wraps.

Murai is directing the film from a script by Henry Dunham (“The Standoff at Sparrow Creek”), and he and Dunham will also produce along with Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen for their Square Peg banner and Julia Oh, Christine D’Souza Gelb, and David Hinojosa for their 2AM banner.

While it’s unclear about the budget on the film, a period film that’s action-heavy like “Bushido” is likely another step up in the scope of what A24 has been taking on of late, with “Civil War” most recently its most expensive feature project to date.

Murai for years has been one of the more in-demand episodic and music video directors. Technically, he directed the 55-minute “Guava Island” film for Childish Gambino back in 2019, but “Bushido” will be his first theatrical, narrative, full-length feature. His most well-known music video is Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” but he’s also directed videos for Earl Sweatshirt, Queens of the Stone Age, Spoon, Usher, Enrique Iglesias, and The Shins, to name a few.

Some of his other episodic credits as a director include stints on “Legion,” “Barry,” and “Snowfall.” Up next he’s directing and producing several episodes of a series created by Katie Dippold, “Widow’s Bay.” He won his Emmy as an EP on “The Bear” when it won Best Comedy Series. In 2020, his company Super Fog Productions signed a first-look TV deal with FX.

The film is also a reunion between A24 and both Square Peg and 2AM, the former of which is making Aster’s upcoming “Eddington” and “Death of a Unicorne,” and the latter of which is making Celine Song’s next film “Materialists.”

Murai is represented by Grandview, UTA, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Dunham is represented by Anonymous Content and attorney Stephen Clark of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols.

Deadline first reported the news.