Back in May it was announced that legendary Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo is bringing some Heroic Bloodshed to Peacock with an English-language reimagining of his action classic The Killer, and now comes word that Woo has found his lead for the remake. As announced by Peacock and Universal, The Intouchables and Lupin star Omay […]
The Essential Films of John Woo
Tom Jolliffe offers up an essential John Woo selection… John Woo has been a little quiet of late. There have long been rumours but finally it seems that his The Killer reboot is being produced by Peacock. This comes hot on the heels of his “comeback” movie Silent Night which should be out some time […]
John Woo to remake The Killer for Peacock
Peacock has wooed John Woo into directing an English language remake of his 1989 Hong Kong action classic The Killer, the streamer has announced. One of Woo’s early heroic bloodshed hits, The Killer saw Chow Yun-Fat starring as an assassin who ends up accidently blinding a nightclub singer on what is meant to be his […]
When a Soundtrack Becomes Beautifully Contrary to Violence on Screen
Tom Jolliffe looks at the effective use of contrarian music in films which show violence… There’s something about a great film soundtrack whether it’s the score or songs (or both). You can have a melancholic drama which will usually be laced with melancholic music. You can have the rousing action adventure with the John Williams […]
John Woo to direct Joel Kinnaman in dialogue-free action film Silent Night
Legendary Hong Kong director John Woo is returning to Hollywood for the first time since 2003’s Paycheck as he teams with The Suicide Squad star for the dialogue-free action film Silent Night. According to Deadline, the film will see Kinnaman playing a normal father who heads into the underworld to avenger the death of his […]
John Woo to produce Stan Lee-created Monkey King Chinese superhero movie
Legendary action director John Woo is set to produce a Chinese superhero movie based on an unpublished story created by the late Stan Lee. According to THR, the film will be an adaptation of Monkey Master, an unreleased comic book series which Lee created alongside his longtime collaborator Sharad Devarajan in 2016, and which tells […]
The Problems Facing the Face/Off Sequel
Tom Jolliffe on the problems facing a Face/Off sequel almost a quarter of a century on from the original… Even in an ever changing film climate, with theatrical distribution facing unprecedented difficulties when coming out the other side of the global pandemic, the predilection for remakes/reboots/sequels continues. If it worked once it could work again. […]
Broken Arrow at 25
Tom Jolliffe takes a look back at John Woo’s somewhat forgotten sophomore Hollywood effort, Broken Arrow, which turns 25… Remember Broken Arrow? Memory a bit hazy? Well John Woo’s second Hollywood film, a box office hit at the time, turns 25. In 1996 we were seeing a decided shift away from the kind of heroics […]
From Hard Boiled to Soft Boiled: Why John Woo’s masterpiece will never be matched again
Tom Jolliffe revisits John Woo’s action masterpiece Hard Boiled… John Woo had already made quite a name for himself in China, thanks to hit action classics such as A Better Tomorrow and The Killer. In 1992 he released the film which would see him transition from Hong Kong director, to Hollywood. The film was Hard […]
The Greatest Action Directors of All Time
Tom Jolliffe looks at the greatest action directors of all time… The action genre has never particularly had the greatest respect associated with it. Maybe there’s a feeling that they’re dramatically anaemic, or sometimes intellectually inferior, but this isn’t always the case. It’s a genre that doesn’t always have consistent specialists, because certain directors who […]