Some big movie news from last week... It was announced that John Woo's 1989 action classic The Killer is getting the remake treatment, set in the United States, with a Korean star replacing Chow Yun-fat as the movie's iconic hitman: Woo's "Killer" gets a new U.S. contract. Korean American director John H. Lee will move the action from Hong Kong to Los Angeles' Koreatown, Chinatown and South Central. Terence Chang, John Woo's longtime producing partner, will serve as executive producer. The script is currently being worked on, and there are no specific plot details yet, but I imagine it will involve a killer, and lots of guns.
There's been talk of a Killer remake for quite some time now. Not too long ago it came pretty close to happening, with Denzel Washington and Richard Gere rumored to be the leads. That obviously never happened, thanks goodness. But it looks like a remake is indeed going through now. I know a lot of people are up in arms about this. Remakes of Asian films tends to be a touchy subject on the movie message boards. And The Killer is beloved film for a lot of Hong Kong action fans. That said, honestly, I don't think this is such a bad idea. By the time this remake is released, it will have twenty years since the original Killer came out. Have you rewatched this movie lately? While the action is great, and is still pretty damn awesome, a lot of the elements are bit dated and it would be interesting to see how they handle an update. And the fact that there are still Asian elements to the remake is encouraging. But again, as in many cases, we'll have to wait and see.
