Reload: John Woo Remaking THE KILLER With Lupita Nyong’o

Good news: John Woo is remaking The Killer, and instead of updating it with an old ass Chow Yun-Fat (who, to be fair, only turns sixty-three next month), he's casting Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave, Black Panther) in the titular role of the lone wolf assassin, haunted by guilt after blinding a singer during a hit. 

Bad news: John Woo hasn't made a good movie in probably a decade (writer's caveat: I haven't seen Manhunt yet, but have been told I'd probably enjoy it as a longtime fan). 2008's epic Red Cliff was arguably Woo's last all-around solid motion picture, as The Crossing is a rather dreary slog, even when split into two parts. Reign of Assassins has some nice moments, but Woo was essentially a glorified consultant on set to Chao-Bin Su, so it's tough to credit him there. 

This isn't the first time Woo's remade his own film, as he redid his middle of the road '91 art heist love-triangle Once A Thief as a TV movie in '96 (and the less we say about that small screen adaptation, the better). This is all a very long-winded, overly pessimistic way of saying "John Woo isn't the filmmaker he used to be in the '80s", which is a bummer. 

Still, it's John Woo re-imagining one of the greatest action movies of all time with Nakia from Black Panther front and center. On paper, that's the coolest fucking idea I've heard in a while. Eran Creevy (Collide) wrote The Killer (Redux) - which will be co-produced by Universal and eOne - based off an original draft from Ten Cloverfield Lane's Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken (unlike the original, which Woo wrote himself). Nice little bit of trivia: this isn't the first time someone tried to Americanize The Killer, as Walter Hill famously wrote a draft in '92 with the intention of directing it himself (starring Richard Gere, of all fucking people). That obviously never happened. 

Here's hoping Woo can conjure up some late-period magic, as nobody captured gunfights quite like he did in his prime. Now, to track down a copy of Manhunt and watch the shit out of it.