Fresh from playing voodoo queen Tia Dalma in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, exciting actress Naomie Harris returns to the screen as Europol agent Mika in Warner Bros.’ new action-thriller “Ninja Assassin.”
In the film, while investigating a series of strange murders, Mika stumbles onto the notion of the nine ancient clans that have trained assassins—ninjas—to perform murders for a fee: the price of a pound of gold. But she is getting too close, and she is now marked for death. Renegade ninja Raizo (Rain) saves her life, and they are forced to go on the run together.
“I just loved the character and felt a real connection with Mika,” relates Harris. “She is different from any character I’ve played before. I really liked her passion and enthusiasm, and that she believes anything is possible, which is what I always believed as well. Like the fantastical is possible.”
“Naomie absolutely got what we were trying to do,” says director James McTeigue. “The character of Mika is really strong and Naomie saw that and completely took her on.”
“Mika’s investigating this bizarre myth, this legend, this rumor,” says screenwriter Matthew Sand. “Her obsession leads her into terrifying danger, but also leads her to the truth.”
“Mika’s work is really her entire life,” says Harris. “So when she finds something, she is like a dog with a bone. She doesn’t let go of it until she’s worked everything out. She likes putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. She’s found a lot of evidence to prove that ninjas exist, and she’s not letting it go.”
Mika’s initial challenge is convincing her boss, Ryan Maslow, that she’s onto something real. British actor Ben Miles, who plays the skeptical agent, says, “I play a kind of hardened cop. One of his young researchers, Mika, comes to him with a seemingly harebrained scheme about ninjas assassinating people now, in the 21st century. He tells her that she can’t seriously think that some guys dressed in black with swords are going around knocking off these high-profile political figures. But Maslow doesn’t always do things by the book; he has a bit of a maverick approach and may have his own plans, so he lets her go with it, and the movie takes on this suspenseful layer upon layer of who you can trust, who you can’t trust, whose side should you be on. It’s a great kind of clash of thriller, film noir and martial arts.”
Harris was most recently seen in director David Ayer’s “Street Kings,” opposite Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. Harris first burst onto the world’s screens as the machete-wielding survivor in Danny Boyle’s zombie horror film “28 Days Later,” and gained a reputation as a versatile actress with roles as varied as Bronx agent Trudy Joplin in Michael Mann’s “Miami Vice” and Tia Dalma in Gore Verbinski’s “Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3.” In 2007, Harris was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, Nov. 26, “Ninja Assassin” is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation in association with Legendary Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment.
