There’s more than one ‘Captain America’ connection as the Wolf Warrior gets familiar faces on both sides of the camera…
Wushu maestro Wu Jing burst onto the screen 20 years ago with a spectacular debut as the lead in Yuen Woo-pings Tai Chi 2 / Tai Chi Boxer, which saw him battling the late great Darren Shahlavi. In the intervening years, Wu has had some great roles including the punk assassin in SPL, the tragic hero of Fatal Contact, but he never really had that break out role until last year when the double whammy of Wolf Warrior (with Scott Adkins) and SPL 2: A Time of Consequences (with Tony Jaa) hit gold at the box office… and in China earned him the title of the ‘billion-dollar man’ in reference to the combined box office of both films.
Wu is currently shooting the sequel Wolf Warrior 2, which sees him reprising his roles both in front and behind the camera, as director/producer and leading man. Wu’s Chinese Special Forces hero finds himself in trouble in a war torn African country. (although set in Africa, the movie is currently shooting outside of Beijing). Yu Nan from Expendables 2 will also be returning and according to Wu the film is the second part of a proposed Wolf Warrior trilogy. Joining the film as Wu’s nemesis, is Frank Grillo from the Captain America franchise (where he played the agent destined to become ‘Crossbones’) Kingdom and The Purge.He is soon to be seen opposite Iko Uwais in Beyond Skyline, who will be playing a mercenary commander whose nefarious activities bring him and his men into conflict with Wu.
Behind the scenes on the film (which is being produced by LV Jianmen and Wu Jing) the Russo Brothers fresh from the international success of Captain America: Civil War are helping produce the movie, as a first step into the Chinese market – having recently formed Anthem Pictures, their new company which will be creating Chinese language projects and focusing on the Chinese market.
According to Russo: “We’re helping Wu Jing out on “Wolf Warriors 2.” We introduced him to some of our relationships in the business, like a stunt team that’s going to come in and work hard with him to elevate the action on the film because the second time out he really wants to up his game and outperform the first movie, which did incredibly well…”
The brothers say they fell in love with China during the promotional tour for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and have already spoken of plans for a new take on Journey to the West and been talking with various China talent about potential projects. One thing that really interests us is this comment:
“Our intent is not to make movies that are geared toward the international market. These are movies geared toward the Chinese market, working with Chinese filmmakers. So I think our approach is: how can we assist with our experience? We’re not interested in any way in imposing a Hollywood style of storytelling on these movies. We’re trying just to assist on a creative level and with some infrastructure…I’m not interested in homogenizing the Chinese market. I’m interested in finding out what’s unique about the Chinese market and endorsing it. I’m more compelled as an artist to see diversification than I am to keep watching an Anglo point of view in storytelling…“
Handling action for the film will be Hong Kong veteran Jack Wong (SPL 2) and Captain America Civil War Fight & Coordinator Sam Hargrave and his team. It does sound like an exciting and refreshing, given the current Hollywood white-washing of Asian characters and culture, (Ghost in the Shell, making Crouching Tiger 2 in English etc…) So lets see where it goes with the Russo’s and Wu Jing’s Wolf Warrior 2…
