We don’t know for certain what the Wachowskis are planning to personally direct after Speed Racer, but we do know that they’re currently developing Ninja Assassin for V for Vendetta‘s helmer James McTeigue. So when Collin Chou tells MTV Movies‘ Larry Carroll that he’s preparing to appear in a “top secret” project for the Wachowskis, I’ve got to think he’s talking about Ninja Assassin – i.e. unless the filmmaking siblings are planning to unleash two martial arts flicks over the next couple of years. I mean, that’d be so out of character for them!
Joel Silver told Collider‘s Frosty that the Ninja Assassin would indeed be a “full-on martial arts movie” (so much for my theory that it was an all-singing, all-fighting re-imagining of Paint Your Wagon), but he didn’t get into the casting side of things. Variety reported a month ago that the Wachowskis had set South Korean pop singer Rain (aka Jung Ji-hoon) to star in what Silver described as “kind of a revenge film”; though Carroll makes it sound like the untitled Wachowski project is a Chou vehicle, it could be that they’re just developing a specific character for the actor.
I don’t think I’ll complain should the Wachowskis decide to make back-to-back chopsocky flicks after Speed Racer, but if their adaptation of the 1960s animated series is as out of its gourd as it looks, I’d much prefer them to keep pushing in that whacked-out direction. It might mean the end of their career, but, hey, it’s been a while since we got to witness a full-fledged artistic flame-out. These boys have a Heaven’s Gate in them… I can feel it.