Time to put on your black-striped yellow jumpsuit and prepare yourself for some high octane action of the punching and kicking variety. Two classic martial arts films from the ’60s and ’70s are getting the remake treatment courtesy of The Weinstein Company and Celestial Pictures.
After taking a dive into the Shaw Brothers’ archives, the Weinsteins have emerged with two classic films from the golden age of Asian cinema. The first of which is “The Avenging Eagle,” a film which starred Ti Lung as an orphan raised to be an assassin by a man named King Eagle. When the orphan decides to leave the clan, King Eagle is enraged and sends the rest of the assassins to kill him. The film was originally released in 1978. The second is “Come Drink With Me” which starred actress Cheng Pei-Pei as a legendary martial artist named Golden Swallow who must save her brother when he is kidnapped by a band of thugs who wish to use him as a bargaining chip to have their master released from prison.
Both films will be English-language adaptations, so it’ll be interesting to see if the Weinstein Co. goes with an Asian centric cast. It would go a long way to capturing the Asian box office market, which has become a highly prized goal with Hollywood in general as of late. But anyone touch the chop-socky delight of these old grindhouse flicks? What does Harvey’s pal Quentin Tarantino — a huge Shaw Brothers fan — think about all this? After no one really saw “The Man With The Iron Fists,” do audiences want this kind of movie? Weigh in below.
