RZA has well known infatuation with movies, especially kung-fu movies, that’s been an influence on his music for over a decade. He helped score some of the most memorable tunes for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” series and has rubbed elbow’s with some of Hollywood’s elite for years and word comes from Twitch Film that Russell Crowe will be joining Lucy Liu, Daniel Wu and Byron Mann in RZA’s directorial debut “The Man with the Iron Fist”.
It’s an interesting albeit risky bit of casting. On the interesting side if Crowe can recapture some of the energy that made him so compelling in LA Confidential or even his gunslinger role in Sam Raimi’s The Quick And The Dead then we’ve got something that could be very fun on screen. On the risk side, however, how many fifteen year old kids in a mall in middle America can you picture saying “Hey, let’s go see that new Russell Crowe kung fu film?”
I like the RZA. I really really do, but so far this movie has “WTF” written all over it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Wu Tang clan and think that RZA is a very talented musician, and I know he has some experience as a music video director but I just don’t understand why Russell Crowe and co. would agree to do a movie with such an unproven director.
I understand that these guys aren’t really the largest box office draws anymore but this is just plain risky. I really hope that spending time with Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, and friends helped RZA shape an entertaining approach to the movie and hopefully the film can help turn Crowe’s career and bring him back to prominence. Can Crowe do kung-fu? Can RZA direct a good kung-fu film?
Who is the man with the Iron Fist?
