TOTAL WAR

SHOGUN The blockbuster historical saga gets an ambitious 2024 update.

- PAUL BRADSHAW

As if it isn't hard enough making a 10-hour epic with sieges, swordfights and shipwrecks, the makers of Shōgun also had to deal with bears trying to eat their sandwiches. 'One day a black bear got into the craft service line,' laughs writer/creator Justin Marks. 'We had a 3,000-strong cast and crew. We were at war with the elements. But every day it was "Bear, bear, bear!" over the radio.'

Rebuilding an entire feudal Japanese fishing village on a remote coast of Vancouver, Marks alongside co-writer and creator (and wife), Rachel Kondo - took on one of the most ambitious adaptations in historical fiction bringing James Clavell's 1975 hefty bestseller to the screen.