Woo’s “The Killer” Gets American Remake

John Woo’s 1989 Hong Kong classic “The Killer” has been recently announced of being remade in Los Angeles. Chow Yun-fat will be replaced for this American version with a Korean star.
The new movie will be directed this time by John H. Lee, a Korean-American director, who will move the action through Los Angeles’ Koreatown, Chinatown and Sourth Central, as Terence Chang, John Woo’s longtime producer and partner at Lion Rock Prods. has announced.
“The actor has to be Korean in this version, but also, L.A. is a character in the film.” – has also mentioned Terence Chang in an interview from the opening day of the four-day Asian Film Market.
“In John’s original version, it doesn’t really matter where the film is set, except that Hong Kong has this dragon boat festival which adds a bit of local flavor. In this remake, we will use the geography of L.A. to move the story forward.” Chang has also said that a script is still being worked on and that it is still too early for revealing also other details about the new movie.
The new director has told The Hollywood Reporter that he is very excited about working on this remake of one of his “favourite films of all time”.
“I ask myself why they chose me and whether I can top it.” – has said John H. Lee from Seoul on Monday, adding: “But then I realize it’s not about making it better. It’s about making my own version. My strength is dealing with human emotions, austerity and elegance.”
The remake of John Woo’s “The Killer” will be the latest one in a string of Asian films to cross the Pacific to Hollywood, where Martin Scorsese earlier this year won the best director Oscar for “The Departed”, which has been in fact also a remake of the Hong Kong gangster film “Infernal Affairs.”

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