John Woo’s “The Killer” is ready to strike again.
A remake of Woo’s 1989 classic, which starred Chow Yun-Fat as a noble hit man who performs one last job after accidentally blinding a young singer, has been plotted since the early 1990s. But now it’s finally here, with Nathalie Emmanuel as the titular assassin (in a role originally earmarked for Lupita Nyong’o), debuting on Peacock next month. Watch the brand-new trailer below.
The movie seems to follow the contours of the original film, with Diana Silvers playing the young girl that the killer blinds and Omar Sy playing the dogged detective on the killer’s trail (in the original movie, the role was played by Danny Lee). There are plenty of visual pyrotechnics on display as well; the original film was a hallmark of Woo’s “heroic bloodshed” style, which encompassed slow-motion, operatic emotion and balletic gunplay.
“The Killer’s” supporting cast includes Eric Cantona, Saϊd Taghmaoui, Tchéky Karyo and Grégory Montel and also features Angeles Woo and Aurélia Agel.
Woo directed the new film from a screenplay by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland and the screenwriting team of Josh Campbell & Matt Stuecken. It was produced by Charles Roven, Alex Gartner, Woo and Lori Tilkin deFelice. The film’s executive producers are Terence Chang (who produced the original movie), Mark Gordon, Matt Jackson and Robin Mulcahy Fisichella.
Development began on a western remake in 1992, with Walter Hill and David Giler writing a screenplay for Tri-Star that was meant to star Richard Gere and Denzel Washington, with Hill meant to direct. (At a certain point the studio became worried that the Gere/Washington relationship would be read as homoerotic, with Chang suggest Michelle Yeoh play the cop.) A year later the “Top Gun” writing duo of Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. were brought in by new producer Charles Roven (who stayed with the project until today) to produce a new script, this time set in Hong Kong.
A new version of the remake popped up in 2007 for director John H. Lee, but gained traction in 2015 when Woo signed on to direct his own remake. Nyong’o was attached but when Helgeland’s original screenplay was rewritten, she left the project and was replaced by Emmanuel. The production finally got underway in 2023 but was stalled for several months by the SAG-AFTRA strike. But now it’s finally here!
“The Killer” debuts on Peacock on August 23.
