Coming off the fairly generic cop drama Pride and Glory, director Gavin O’Connor surprised just about everyone with his emotionally-packed story of family and MMA fighting in last year’s Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton-starrer Warrior. He’s now looking towards his next project and it might send him to Japan.

Deadline reports that Universal Pictures has signed the director for a thriller titled Yakuza. The film follows a CIA-esque intelligence expert who gets connected in with the dangerous mafia of Japan called the yakuza. He links up with a godfather baddie and things get even worse from there, all in the “toxic landscape of post-tsunami Japan.”

O’Connor will also take a stab at the script with Josh Fagin, which originated with Aaron & Matthew Benay and was since passed to Chap Taylor. In other words, it’s like any Hollywood production. This is actually an enticing project, since O’Connor could bring a more naturalistic vibe to the usual overproduced stuff that is tied to the genre. That is, if he can get some time off from his Channing Tatum-produced Neverland movie.

Which project would you like to see the Warrior director take on?