AMC's new series Into The Badlands puts a new twist on a classic tale from Chinese literature Journey to the West (the story we all knew as 'Monkey'!). Set in a post apocalyptic America, controlled by seven leaders (all of whom control armies of their own, Sunny (Daniel Wu) a great warrior must find redemption by helping a young boy travel through this world in search of enlightenment.
Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (the team behind Smallville) and directed by David Dobkin (Shanghai Knights, Wedding Crashers) and with Wu also serving as a producer alongside Stephen Fung of Gen-C Cops fame (who is also running the series action unit alongside longtime Yuen Woo-ping protege Didi Ku, himself famous for Fearless and the Once Upon A Time in China series), the show is described as a “genre bending martial arts series'. We'll find out for ourselves in late 2015 when the first six episodes are due to premiere.
The first teaser for the show has been released and does present a real 'Django Unchained' meets 'Cyborg' retro-feel... and from the look of it, it appears that the show will finally showcase Wu's impressive martial arts skills, something that surprisingly he never really got to show off much during the majority of his Hong Kong films.