A remake of John Woo’s groundbreaking action movie “The Killer” has been in the works since shortly after it premiered in 1989, but it took until 2024 for it to finally materialize — from Woo himself.
Over the years a number of filmmakers took a stab at adapting the beloved Hong Kong action movie, about a hitman (played by frequent Woo collaborator Chow Yun-Fat) who accidentally blinds a young girl, including “Alien” principals Walter Hill and David Giler, “Top Gun” writers Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., and Korean-American filmmaker John H. Lee. There would be announcements made every so often, but very little forward momentum.
While development creeped along, Woo made his way to Hollywood, directing a series of highly regarded, star-filled action movies like “Hard Target,” “Broken Arrow” and “Mission: Impossible II,” which grossed more than half a billion dollars worldwide back in 2000. The style he developed in Hong Kong would also make its way to the West to varying degrees, influencing everything from Brandon Lee in “The Crow” to Quentin Tarantino. (Just look at the way Harvey Keitel fires guns with both hands in “Reservoir Dogs.”)
After Woo made “Paycheck” with Ben Affleck, which was released by Paramount in 2003, he was frustrated, leaving Hollywood and returning to China. There, he made movies like the sweeping two-part historical epic “Red Cliff” and 2017’s Japan-set “Manhunt” (now on Netflix).
When Woo finally returned to America, after almost two decades working overseas, he found that there still wasn’t anybody formally attached to “The Killer.”
Woo said he was hesitant to “remake my own movies,” but who else was going to do it?
“We tried to make it happen, but we couldn’t find any good directors or actors interested enough to do that, because it was hard,” Woo told TheWrap. The filmmaker credits writers Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken for suggesting that they make the character originally played by Yun-Fat a woman (now played by “Game of Thrones” alum Nathalie Emmanuel), especially since earlier attempts at remaking the movie were derailed over fears the story was too homoerotic. The female angle intrigued Woo. “That really excited me. I had never shot a female hero. I said, ‘Okay, that made me interested to do that,’” Woo said.
When Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland was brought on to overhaul the “Killer” script, Woo was even happier. “He really got my spirit and he really got the spirit from the original,” Woo said. “He put my style and my element into the movie.” Woo was even happy with Helgeland’s biggest change to the original movie – spoiler alert – a happy ending. “I fell deeply in love with the script, even with the new changes, and since we couldn’t find anybody else to do it, I took a job,” Woo said. During production he never referred to it as a remake, but rather remarked that it was simply “another version of ‘The Killer.’”
Unfortunately, one of the causalities of Helgeland’s version of the script was original star Lupita Nyong’o, who was meant to play the title role. Woo said she “didn’t like the new changes.” Helgeland’s take added more about the cop who is on her trail (played in this version by Omar Sy). His script also added a lot of humor that was missing from earlier versions. Nyong’o wasn’t sure this was the direction she wanted the movie to go in, and in the meantime got another offer that she decided to take instead.
Not that it was a big setback for Woo.
“We found Nathalie. She loved the script, loved the action. She was so professional and never complained about anything and she preferred to do 98% of the stunts by herself,” Woo said. When we asked who had done a greater percentage of their own stunts – Emmanuel or Tom Cruise, the star of Woo’s “Mission: Impossible II” – Woo said, “Well, pretty much the same. Tom was 99%, Nathalie was 98%.”
Another change that came with the casting swap: when the movie went from starring Nyong’o to starring Emmanuel, it went from a theatrical Universal title to one that would debut on Universal’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform Peacock.
This new version of “The Killer” also afforded Woo something that he’d wanted to do his entire career – the opportunity to make a movie in France. Woo has long been inspired by the work of Jean-Pierre Melville, the French auteur known for making elevated genre movies like 1956’s “Bob le flambeur” and 1967’s “Le Samouraï.” (Woo has giant Melville posters adorning the walls of his production company in Hollywood.) He remembers seeing Melville’s movies when he was young. They didn’t have much dialogue so Woo was drawn to the characters. It made him “question the story and the characters and the way he shot it.” As he grew older, Woo was envious of the freedom Melville had when making the movies. “It seemed to me the producers and the financiers didn’t exist,” Woo joked.
When Woo became a director in 1973, he remembers telling the studio, “Please let me shoot a movie like ‘Le Samouraï.’ But they didn’t listen to me,” Woo said. They thought he wanted to make a Japanese movie, but Woo said that he instead wanted to capture “the loneliness of a killer.” They didn’t get it. They told him what they wanted from his films was Kung Fu and sex.
Every year he begged collaborators and the studio to make a movie like “Le Samouraï.” Finally, he connected with producer Tsui Hark, who encouraged Woo to make “A Better Tomorrow.” And then “The Killer.” “He set me free,” Woo said. “He said, ‘Just do whatever you want.’ I was so grateful.”
1989’s “The Killer,” Woo said, was the “first time I felt like an auteur.” He made the movie without a script, coming up with each scene during shoot, swayed by the emotional content of the sequence. He remembered telling the actors things like, “I want this scene to be about betrayal.” And then they would come up with the dialogue. He remembers looking for locations in Hong Kong that would evoke French settings and being disappointed. He had “total control,” something that he never had in Hollywood (and certainly hasn’t had since).
In some ways this new “Killer” feels like a compilation of Woo’s greatest hits – there are characters with guns in each hands, doves flutter through an old church, runaway cars nearly hit pedestrians, with the emotion turned all the way up to 11. He said this wasn’t by design and that some of his collaborators tried to undermine his decision to “not copy anything from my own movies.”
“I tried to not use many pigeons,” Woo said. He’d get to the set and there would be guys standing around holding pigeons asking, “John, how about some pigeons?” He would acquiesce, saying, “Okay, okay, just one,” only for them to put 10 in. “If I didn’t use any pigeons, they were unhappy. They’d be upset,” Woo said. “In this movie, we have pigeons everywhere.”
More problematic than pigeons was the dual writers and actors strikes from last year. The production was going full steam ahead in summery Europe; in the winter “we got born again.” “It was so cold,” Woo said. “And we had to shoot the end of it. The ending was very important, especially for the audience.” Woo had to “satisfy myself and satisfy the audience.” They worked out “a new kind of fighting” for the ending. He pulled it off and finished the movie.
Woo said that he has two scripts that he is working on now, which couldn’t be further away from his back catalog – a musical (“but no dancing”) and a Western. The Western, Woo noted, is also written by Helgeland.
When we asked what he thought of the “heroic bloodshed” label that has been affixed to his key Hong Kong movies (and to a certain extent “Face/Off”), Woo said, “No matter what they call it, I’m happy.”
