John Woo is developing a “half-musical” as his next project, joking that it will be his first movie where he won’t need a stuntman.
When you think of John Woo, you think of action. With movies such as The Killer, Hard Boiled, Face/Off, Mission: Impossible 2, and more, the director has delivered some of the greatest action in the history of cinema, but his next project will be a big departure. While speaking with Empire, John Woo confirmed that his next movie will be a “half-musical” made in collaboration with Sparks, the pop and rock duo formed by brothers Ron and Russell Mael.
“My next project is actually a half-musical,” Woo said. “I’m going to be working with the Sparks Brothers, who wrote the script and songs — we are just starting work on some changes to the script.” The director then joked that this “will be my first movie where I don’t need to hire a stuntman.” Woo has wanted to tackle a musical for some time, even coming close to helming an adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera starring John Travolta in the ’90s. Sparks recently posted a photo with John Woo, teasing the project.
The hashtag mentions X Crucior, a project announced by Focus Features two years ago, which has merely been described as a “musical epic.” I’m intrigued.
Woo’s latest film was an English-language remake of his own 1989 action classic: The Killer. The new version stars Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee, a mysterious assassin known as the Queen of the Dead. When she refuses to kill a young blind woman (Diana Silvers) on the orders of her handler, Finn (Sam Worthington), her world implodes, and she finds herself on the run, attracting the attention of police investigator Sy (Omar Sy). Unfortunately (and perhaps predictably), the remake has received mixed reviews, including one from our own Alex Maidy.
“As evidenced by Silent Night, John Woo still has something in the tank, but The Killer is a total misfire in every sense,” Maidy wrote. “While seeing how a filmmaker can realize a concept in two completely different ways is interesting, The Killer may be the most unnecessary remake since Gus Van Sant’s Psycho. The Killer is the worst thing an action movie can be: boring. Avoid this movie at all costs unless you are a John Woo completist, and even then, you will be disappointed that you waited over thirty years for this.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.