The Abbot of the Wu-Tang Clan, The RZA, announced last year he was working on a kung-fu movie titled, The Man With the Iron First, and the LA Times’ recent feature on the music producer and his project gives us an update on the film; which should be overseen by Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino:
“I called him up, read it,” Roth said. “I said, ‘This is great, but we can make it even stronger. Everything you have — the core idea, the characters — are so good, we can revamp this. I can do for you what Quentin Tarantino did for me on ‘Hostel.’ “
The only thing left for Roth and RZA to do was to get their teacher’s blessing.
“Quentin said, ‘You are ready, just don’t start too much up here,’ ” RZA said. “That meant, don’t let my budget exceed $10 million. Don’t start like that, yo! You start like that, expectation is going to be so high, you may never come again. That’s great advice.”
Although Roth and RZA say that they have already secured independent financing for “Man With the Iron Fist” and that a shooting draft has been written, the movie’s production schedule has not yet been set.
Drawing intently on a cigarette and taking in the suburban torpor of his current digs, RZA voiced caution for those Wu aficionados expecting the producer to serve as his own leading man. “I don’t know if I’ll be the star,” he said, laughing. “The ladies will be the star. There’s a lot of ladies in this film.”
Could Man With the Iron Fist be for the Rza what Hostel was for Eli Roth? It’s a possibility.
