Keanu calls the shots
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Reeves makes debut as director with 'Man of Tai Chi'
He’s played a science-fiction hero, policeman and even Hamlet. But now actor Keanu Reeves is taking on a new role – as director of a contemporary martial arts movie aimed at both Asian and Western audiences.
Reeves has stepped behind the camera to make his directorial debut with “Man of Tai Chi”, a trilingual film loosely based on the life of a stuntman, Tiger Chen, whom he befriended while working on the “The Matrix” sci-fi trilogy.
Reeves says he had always wanted to try directing and spent five years developing the script.
“It was also tied to getting older,” Reeves, 48, told Reuters Television at last month’s Cannes Film Festival.
He also acts in the film but explains that the focus is on a stuntman and martial arts expert, struggling to maintain his traditional values and beliefs against the pressures of modern society. Chen stars as himself while Reeves plays the villain who lures him into underground fighting and the promise of money, glamour and power.
The film, made in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and filmed in China and Hong Kong, is meant to appeal to both the huge market in China, where Reeves won fans with “Matrix” and for having a Chinese great-grandparent, and in Western countries.
“Man of Tai Chi” was co-produced by the China Film Group, Wanda Media, Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Universal Pictures and will be distributed internationally by Universal.
Judging from early clips of the movie, we can expect big fight sequences and high-speed car chases along Chinese highways – which is no surprise from the star of the 1994 thriller “Speed”.
