This thing is really happening. Universal just promised $20 million to RZA to finance his next project ‘The Man With the Iron Fist(s).’ RZA will direct, score and star in the film as a blacksmith that supplies a village in feudal China with weapons. Eli Roth will produce. Roth co-wrote the screenplay, describing it as “Kung Fu with a spaghetti Western mindset and a Hip Hop influence.”
Turns out Eli Roth and the RZA are buddies. Maybe they bonded over their respective cinephelia, maybe torture. About RZA, Eli ‘Bear Jew’ Roth said that “he knows Kung Fu like I know horror.” So, we could at least expect adequate genre fetishism.
RZA has previously showed off his Kung Fun skills with the project Wu-Tang vs. The Golden Phoenix. Its low budget stylization is vaguely reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time REDUX, and with big budgeting, RZA’s next project could be a tad closer to the ideal. That’s just speculation, but whatever it’s going to end up being, a RZA soundtrack will be fitting. His beats have been a staple to nearly all modern take on the Kung Fu genre (Kill Bill saga, Ghost Dog, etc.)
Shooting starts in Hong Kong this September.
Me likey.