Director John Woo has remade his iconic 1989 Hong Kong action film The Killer in America. Hereās the trailer.
John Woo is, of course, one of the forefathers of the modern action film, helping to create an entire subgenre known as Heroic Bloodshed.
From his earliest martial arts film Hand Of Death through the legendary Hard Boiled and The Killer to his underrated English language debut Broken Arrow and blockbusters like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2, Woo’s action sequences are as majestic as they are brutally balletic.
The Killer, released in 1989, followed Chow Yun-Fat as a troubled hitman who injures a singer during a bloody shootout. He must commit one last hit to raise the money for her operation, without which she will go blind. Itās often cited as one of the greatest action films ever made ā if you’ve never had the pleasure, it really is incredible.
Read more: Silent Night review | John Woo returns with a festive flurry of bullets
Woo has directed an English language remake, in which Nathalie Emmanuel takes over from Chow Yun-Fat in the lead role and the filmmaker moves his action from Hong Kong to Paris.
The synopsis reads as follows:
From one of the producers of Oppenheimer, the kinetic action thriller film stars Emmy nominee Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee, a mysterious and infamous assassin known, and feared, in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead. But when, during an assignment from her shadowy mentor and handler (Sam Worthington), Zee refuses to kill a blinded young woman (Diana Silvers) in a Paris nightclub, the decision will disintegrate Zeeās alliances, attract the attention of a savvy police investigator (Omar Sy), and plunge her into a sinister criminal conspiracy that will set her on a collision course with her own past.
The cast also includes Eric Cantona, SaĻd Taghmaoui, Tchéky Karyo, Grégory Montel, Angeles Woo and Aurélia Agel.
Woo directs from a screenplay by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken.
The Killer will stream on Peacock from the 23rd August, there is currently no word on a UK release date, but weāll keep you updated as we hear more.
Watch the trailer belowā¦
