Even though the original helped launch him on the international cinema scene and is still considered an influential action classic, John Woo has been trying to set up a remake of The Killer for a while now. Directors have come and gone, but now a new version is apparently in pre-production with John H Lee directing in 3D.
Reign of Assassins’ Jung Woo-Sung is the man risking comparisons to Chow Yun-Fat’s iconic assassin Ah Jong, in a story that writer Josh Campbell has shifted to modern-day LA. The basic plot is still the same, though: a hit man takes one last job to pay for the treatment of a singer he unintentionally blinded, even as the cops hunt him down. Cue bullet-strewn chaos.
"While all my films are special to me, The Killer is truly one of my favourites," Wood said in a statement. "We are thrilled to reinvent it as an English-language film and know it's in capable hands by the incredible visual style and tender emotion John H. Lee brings to all his films."
Essential Entertainment will be handling international sales, with a big pitch planned for the Berlin Film Festival next week. Essential’s John Fremes talked up the extra dimension: “John Woo’s The Killer is one of the most influential and classic action films of all-time. The 3D version will no doubt appeal to fans of the original as well as capture a new generation of enthusiasts.”
Hooray! 3D. Maybe the doves will fly out of the screen and poop on the audience.