The Hughes Brothers have been in director jail* since 2002’s From Hell was so fucking terrible. Just completely fucking awful. But now they’re coming back, and it’s with a project that a number of directors have been eyeing – a big screen version of the David Carradine TV show Kung Fu.
The script is being written by Cory Goodman, who wrote Priest. No, not the controversial one Miramax had a few years ago, but rather yet another poor looking Gerard Butler movie (does one need to specify that a Gerard Butler movie looks poor? One of the most shocking things about 300 is that it doesn’t look poor and yet stars Butler), this one about a vampire killing priest. Goodman’s going to be rewriting a script by Howard Friedlander, who wrote for the original show, and Ed Spielman, the creator of the show. Spielman’s also executive producing.
Apparently Warner Bros is looking at this as part of their foray into China, and they want to use the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an advertising platform. Let’s hope that China doesn’t violently crush any pro-democracy movements between now and then – that would be so bad for business!
I am running under the assumption – or the hope, anyway – that the film will be a period piece, like the original show. I almost don’t see the point in having it take place outside of the Old West – half of the show was based on the idea of people being very shocked that this little Chinaman-looking white guy could kick ass. Nowadays we all assume a karate guy could kill us with his pinky.
*They have been housed in the TV Commercials and Music Video Minimum Security Prison.