When Will in the Badlands Be on Again
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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought moviemaking to a screeching halt all around the globe. For Daniel Wu, who works in both Hollywood and Chinese productions, information technology's been nearly watching and waiting to see which side of the Pacific reopens their studios first.
"For me, it actually just feels similar what it feels like between jobs," says Wu. "It'due south just been really long."
Most Americans know Daniel Wu from his groundbreaking AMC serial Into the Badlands . Some might recognize him from his more contempo roles in Tomb Raider and Geostorm , and a few may even remember him from Jackie Chan's Around the World in lxxx Days or RZA's The Human with the Fe Fists . Simply Daniel Wu's filmography is far more extensive than his Hollywood roles. In Asia, he is an A-list histrion with over 70 films under his chugalug. He amassed numerous nominations from Asia's most prestigious accolade ceremonies and won Best Supporting Actor for his office in Jackie Chan's New Police Story at Taiwan's Aureate Horse Awards. However, Wu's 20-twelvemonth-plus pic career was never his plan. He was going to exist an builder and was discovered by chance.
Wu was born in California and graduated from University of Oregon with a caste in compages. "In '97 when I graduated, you know Hong Kong was going back to China and I decided OK, I'm going to go come across this event—the Handover—and travel around Asia for two or iii months and effigy out what I was going to do," Wu recalls. "My first month in Hong Kong, I got scouted to do a Telly commercial and that led to the director of my first film, Yonfan, seeing that ad and so calling me into his role." That film was Bishonen .
Bishonen is a Japanese term significant "cute male child" and the motion-picture show was a milestone for LGBTQ cinema in Hong Kong. Loosely based on a true story, Wu plays a gay cop entangled in complex diplomacy. "What I identified with when I first read it was that this was only a coming of age story," Wu says. "It doesn't matter that he's in beloved with a guy or a girl or whatever. It's a basic coming of age story. He's trying to find who he is. So that's how I kind of tapped into it with no acting background whatever. I jumped into this actually complicated graphic symbol and a difficult picture to brand as my first role."
Since his discovery, Wu has taken on a broad range of roles. "A lot of people don't know that my career is non just Into the Badlands . I've done 20 years of all kinds of filmmaking: romantic comedies to activity to noir to whatever to art house films, everything. I didn't want to be cornered into one genre."
For anyone who hasn't seen Wu's Asian films, he has some recommendations. Gen-10 Cops is an furnishings-laden actioner starring Hong Kong's 'Brat pack' at the turn of the millennium, all of whom have gone on to be big celebrities now. Dearest Undercover is the rom-com that earned him his "heartthrob" cred and spawned a franchise of sequels. One Dark in Mongkok is a noir criminal offense thriller that won many Asian motion picture awards and opened the door for Wu to brand what he calls "grown-up" films.
Wu won Best New Director for his Cantopop mockumentary Four Heavenly Kings at the coveted Hong Kong Flick Awards. This pic was like Spinal Tap on steroids with a brilliant unconventional marketing campaign. The four leads, including Wu, led the public into assertive they were forming a boy ring called "Alive," fooling fans and the media alike. Alive even played iii real major concerts in Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai, the last two in forepart of over 40,000 people. They filmed the unabridged journeying, adding scripted scenes and staging scandals to become more media coverage and heighten the parody. Information technology was a meta-level satire because that sort of packaged celebrity was exactly what Four Heavenly Kings was lampooning. The ruse wasn't revealed until the film premiered.
After Into the Badlands was cancelled, Wu took some time off to permit his torso recover from all the stunt piece of work. He read scripts and focused on his hobby of restoring vintage cars. "I was offered a agglomeration of martial arts stuff and I felt similar if I took a martial arts part, that's all I would always be doing." Despite his diverse roles in Asia, as an Asian, he could easily go typecast into Kung Fu roles in Hollywood. And Wu has washed plenty of action already. Prior to Badlands , he was managed by Jackie Chan for 11 years, but he left that to augment his range.
"I'g looking for the right project," he says. "I haven't plant one all the same. I've been reading a lot of scripts during this Covid period but I oasis't found one yet that I'thou into in terms of interim-wise."
Notwithstanding, Wu had already completed work on 2 films before the pandemic shutdown. "After Badlands Season 3, I went and did a movie in China called Defenseless in Time ." Wu says that film is completed but its release was delayed by the outbreak. "I play a character based on a real person in the '90s who basically went on a robbing spree for similar 10 years. This is before Red china had whatsoever kind of technology – no CCTVs, whatever kind of stuff. So this guy figured out it'southward so easy to run rampant in this kind of organisation. And he did. It became a game for him."
Wu too shot another projection in Nov, Reminiscence , which co-stars Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, and Thandie Newton. Reminiscence is written, produced and directed by Lisa Joy, who too writes and produces Westworld . When Joy approached him for the part, he was thrilled. "She was like 'I desire you to play this graphic symbol. He's a bad guy but I want him to exist evil, just sexy and attractive all at the same time in means that we've never seen in an Asian American male character on screen before.' And before she fifty-fifty showed me the script I'm like 'I'g in.'" Reminiscence is a sci-fi picture show noir, which is Wu's favorite genre ( Bladerunner is one of his all time favorites). More than so, he was delighted to exist directed by Joy. "It was really cool to see a female person person of color, an Asian American sister, just owning information technology on set." Reminiscence is scheduled for theatrical release in Apr 2021.
Wu is also working behind the photographic camera, producing a new Idiot box show based on his 2009 Hong Kong moving picture Overheard . "The first one we did was about iii undercover cops who were borer in on some gangsters and trying to bust this gang. And and then they hear some insider trading tips—insider trading stock stuff—that's not related to their case at all. And and then they go 'Oh, this is not going to hurt everyone if nosotros invest in this'. And they do it and it'due south all about this morality of what's right and wrong." The plot has been expanded into a Boob tube series and reset in Queens. It was picked up in December past Spectrum. Wu isn't sure if he'll appear in the show, but then again, he didn't intend to appear in Into the Badlands originally either.
What'due south more than, Wu was pitching his dream project when the pandemic put a cease to everything.
"Communist china hasn't had a Hoosiers or a Field of Dreams , those kinds of sports feel skilful movies. And then I wanted to do a movie about basketball, which is my second favorite sport after martial arts."
Prc is the second largest film market in the world subsequently Hollywood and it is poised to overtake Hollywood before long. At present with the pandemic eviscerating the global movie industry, who knows what volition happen? Merely now, no matter what, a film must cater to both markets to truly become a global blockbuster. "I went into this trying to crack the code on what is a US China co-product and how can that be successful, right?"
If anyone is positioned to conquer both markets, it's Daniel Wu. Already, three of his films proved the ability of the Chinese market place later on flopping in the United states: Warcraft , Geostorm and Tomb Raider . Warcraft had a $160 million budget but only earned $47 meg in the U.S. In China, information technology earned $221 million, making information technology the highest grossing video game movie of all fourth dimension. It was such a dramatic turnaround that at present when U.Due south. flops succeed in China, insiders call it a " Warcraft Redemption."
"With these big-scale Hollywood productions, they're trying to be more global. And so they're trying to speak to a bigger global audition and that's why people like me are getting more opportunities because I have a following in the East, you lot know? And then when you want to stack your cast with people that are pulled from different regions, information technology makes sense to put someone similar me in those movies. And so it doesn't hurt that I speak fluent English."
For part one of our interview with Daniel Wu, in which he discusses the legacy of Into the Badlands, click here.
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Source: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/into-the-badlands-whats-next-for-daniel-wu/
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