John Woo’s influential 1989 action film The Killer is getting a remake, and 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o is set to star.
Woo is directing the redo for Entertainment One and Universal Pictures and is producing alongside eOne’s Mark Gordon and Lori Tilkin. Universal describes the remake as a “blistering thriller that blends espionage with extraordinary stunts.”
Deadline broke the news, reporting that the remake’s script comes from Eran Creevy (Welcome to the Punch), who worked from a draft penned by 10 Cloverfield Lane scribes Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken. Oscar winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland (L.A Confidential, Man on Fire) is to do a production pass as the next stage approaches kick-off.
The Killer will find Nyong’o, who earned an Oscar for her turn in 12 Years a Slave, playing an assassin who risks her life to a save a woman whom she accidentally left blind during her last hit.
The ’89 picture is considered to an important chapter in action cinema. The film helped push writer-director Woo into the spotlight, leading to him helming a number of US films including Broken Arrow, Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II and Paycheck. It also helped solidify lead actor Chow Yun-Fat as a bonafide star. Cinema buffs and lovers of action cinema should really track down some of Woo’s early bullet-riddled, dove-loving, Yun-Fat-starring Hong Kong pictures; A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, Hard Boiled, and of course The Killer are great.
It’s been a while since Woo impressed; arguably since his two-part historical epic Red Cliff. Fingers crossed here.
