Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy star in the remake of John Woo’s Chow Yun-Fat classic. Woo returns with a script from Brian Helgeland.
Peacock has just dropped the trailer for The Killer, John Woo’s upcoming remake of his own 1989 action classic. This 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).
When he was asked why he decided to remake his popular Chow Yun-Fat film, Woo said, “Well, the project was in the works for many years, but it was hard to find a director to direct it. So when I came back [to the States], we got support from Universal, and they asked me to do it. So I decided to give it a try, and we have a very good script from Brian Helgeland. He’s so wonderful, and he wrote the new movie to look so much different from my work. It looks like another movie, not mine. So I took the job and we’ll see how it works.“
The Killer remake, directed by John Woo from a script by Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, will stream exclusively on Peacock on August 23rd.
Emmanuel recently spoke with IGN about the film, “[Zee] has a very specific code in how she likes to do things. And when she’s told who and when to kill somebody, she does it in her own specific way. And her dilemma in this movie is that she’s being asked to kill somebody who she doesn’t believe deserves it. And for some reason she can’t believe that they deserve to be killed …“ Omar Sy spoke about his character, who is ironically named Sy, “I like Sy because he’s a loyal cop playing by his own rules to make real justice and really do it with all his heart. It’s more about instinct and feelings, you know? He’s the good guy, but sometimes he can cross the line to do what is best. That was very interesting for me.“
The two leads also showed love and respect to the original from Woo. Emmanuel noted, “I love the original movie. I’ve seen it more than a couple of times. (John Woo) was an innovator of action, in my opinion. And just really cared about not just the action, and the sort of excitement and the spectacle of the action, but really cares about the characters and their emotional dilemma as you put it. And so it’s an excellent movie. I’ve seen a lot of John’s movies. I’m a massive fan of Face/Off. I think it’s one of my favorites of his, and Mission: Impossible 2 is obviously fantastic.”