Apr 5 2011 5:21 PM EDT 1,263
Keanu Reeves Wants ‘Man Of Tai Chi’ To Be A ‘Solid Kung Fu Movie’
‘Good story, good plot — but let’s get some good kung fu going!’ he tells MTV News of the film, which he plans to direct.
By Eric Ditzian (@ericditzian) , with reporting by Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz)
While Keanu Reeves pushes forward with work on “47 Ronin,” his samurai- and ninja-filled revenge story, he’s also trying to get another martial-arts film off the ground — and this one he wants to direct himself.
The 46-year-old actor first told us about the project at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, but when we caught up with him recently as he promoted the indie comedy “Henry’s Crime,” Reeves spilled some additional details.
"It’s called ‘Man of Tai Chi,’ " he said. "We want to do it in Chinese and English, do it as kind of a co-production with CFG perhaps, which is a Chinese film group, kind of a studio. It’s tricky.
“I would play the villain,” he added of the story, which would be set in the modern day but pay homage to kung fu films of the past.
Though Reeves and his partners haven’t yet bankrolled the production, they’ve got a script in place — one that will contain a ridiculous amount of fighting. “There’s 18 fights. We’ve timed it out. It’s about 40 minutes of fighting,” he said. “I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie. Good story, good plot — but let’s get some good kung fu going!”
While Reeves waits for financing to come together, he’s gearing up to shoot “47 Ronin” in 3-D. “I call it a story of revenge and impossible love,” he said. “The samurai become outcast and decide to enact revenge on the person who is responsible for the death of their lord.”
Here’s our thread on 47 Ronin.
