To start at the beginning... The Destroyer is a series of paperback novels about a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams originally penned by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. The series was initially co-authored by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir with each writing a portion of each book separately. In the late 1970s the relationship between the two became tense and Sapir withdrew. In the early 1980s, Murphy began using ghostwriters to help with the series but by the mid-1980s, Sapir had returned to participate in the series. In the late 1980s, Will Murray took over the sole responsibility of writing the series, having penned several previous books with either Murphy or Sapir. After Sapir's death, Murray continued the series until the late 1990s. In 2011 the rights to most of The Destroyer novels reverted to Warren Murphy.
The series' hero sees a Newark cop - Remo Williams - framed for a crime and sentenced to death. However his death is faked by the government so he can be trained as an assassin for CURE, a secret organization set up by President Kennedy to defend the country by working outside the law. The head of CURE is Harold Smith, a man selected by the President for his brilliant mind but also because of his integrity. Smith was a former law instructor at Yale and served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Remo's trainer and father-figure is Chiun, a deadly assassin and the last Master of Sinanju. It has also emerged that Remo is the Avatar of Shiva, as prophesied in the legends of Sinanju. (In 1985, a revision of The Assassin's Handbook was published as Inside Sinanju, a companion book to the series. This is narrated primarily in the first person, from Chiun's perspective. It covers anecdotes as well as information on the various villains and history of the series).
The series' basic formula had taken shape by about the third book, but many elements were introduced into later stories about the early days of Remo's training. In the first book, the word Sinanju is not used at all to describe the martial arts that Chiun teaches Remo. Zen, karate, aikido and judo are used instead. Remo has many trainers for other aspects of being an undercover operative; he is taught to use different types of firearms, and trained in close-quarters assassination. He smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and eats red meat, all activities that would later prove harmful or impossible as his body was changed by the harsh Sinanju training regime. Remo sometimes uses ,ore conventional weaponssuch as a gun, although it is only to wound - all his actual kills are hand-to-hand. He does make a conscious choice NOT to use weapons, after a fight in which he kills a man who had been pointing a gun at him. He realises that Chiun never carried a gun and is over 70, whereas MacCleary, who had told him to always carry a gun, is dead.
Remo and Chiun encounter a number of colorful villains, both human and superhuman. Their foes have run the gamut of pulp fiction, from mobsters to mad scientists and satires of famous real-life people. Notable examples include: Mr Gordon, a shape shifting NASA-created android with limited emotional capabilities; Cartoonist Uncle Sam Beasley, revived from cryogenic sleep and armed with an animatronic eye and hand; Super-soldier Elizu Roote, a cyborg with electricity-based superpowers; Nuihc the Renegade (Chiun reversed), a former Sinanju disciple who abandoned the village; Jeremiah Purcell (a.k.a. the Dutchman) - Nuihc's protege and a strong psychic and pyrokinetic; Kali , the Hindu goddess who is linked to Remo; The Master, a chinese vampire; Wu Ming Shi (aka Fu Manchu); Sagwa, the bodyguard and right hand man of Wu Ming Shi, a pastiche of martial artist Bruce Lee and Rasputin, an undead Russian monk. (though possibly not Russia's greatest love machine).
The series always had great potential for a film franchise (and there is even a knowing wink in the books to the issues of replacing a leading man if they don’t want to return to the franchise, with Remo undergoing plastic surgery at times to change his appearance and keep his identity a mystery to his enemies). So it's not a huge surprise that in the early 1980s, Chuck Norris expressed interest in bringing the character to the screen and though he never officially got to play Remo, if you watch the double act of Norris & Mako in Steve Carvers An Eye for an Eye, there’s a very Remo & Chuin’esque quality to their relationship.
Remo Wiliams: The Adventure Begins trailer
In 1985, The Destroyer concept was adapted for the theatrical movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward as Williams and Joel Grey (from Cabaret) as Chiun. The film shows the first meeting of Remo and Chuin and centres on a corrupt weapons manufacturer who is selling guns to the US Army. Directed by James Bond movie veteran Guy Hamilton, the film slightly reworks Remo’s origin and downplays the martial artistry perhaps a tad too much. However there’s a great sense of fun to the movie: Ward makes a great Remo and Grey earned a Golden Globe Nomination for his mischievous portrayal of Chuin. It also has a bombastic score by Craig Safan and some great action set pieces including a battle around and above the Statue of Liberty. The film did so-so business at the box office but has since garnered a cult following although some fans feel the film dumbed down the characters and concept.
In 1988, an American television pilot, Remo Williams, aired but did not ultimately lead to a series. It was a follow-up to the first movie incorporating footage from that film in the opening credits. It starred Jeffrey Meek as Williams, Roddy McDowall as Chiun, and Stephen Elliott as Harold W. Smith and is loosely based on the novella The Day Remo Died . Set one year after the events of the feature film, the pilot episode (entitled The Prophecy) featured guest stars Carmen Argenziano, Judy Landers, and Andy Romano and retained Craig Safan’s score from the movie. Admittedly, the pilot suffers from notable budgetary restrictions but does have a nice sense of humour - with Chuin narrating the introduction of Remo and himself during the opening sequence and does hint at what could have been, if a full series had gone into production. The pilot was rarely seen since its 1988 airing, until it began to crop up on the Encore cable TV network in 2009.
Which brings us to the present and the fact that there seems to have been growing rumours about another attempt to bring the concept back to the screen. Producers Charles Roven and The Transporter’s Steve Chasman are names linked to the project, but as yet there’s been no official word. So far, Remo is armed, dangerous, but still without a home...
