Is It April 1st? Or is Russell Crowe Really Going to be in a Kung-Fu Flick?

The Internet is abuzz today because apparently RZA (pronounced “Rizza” for y’all that don’t know these things) of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan announced on the red carpet of MTV’s Video Music Awards (they still pretend they play videos?) that his directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fist will star Russell Crowe… and while that is surprising enough, the fact that the film is apparently a Kung-Fu film makes it, well, almost too much to believe true. More after the jump.

Of course, RZA is no stranger to martial arts films – his first soundtrack work was Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai; he’s also scored Kill Bill and episodes of Afro Samurai, and is a self-professed fanatic of the genre. Plus, RZA did appear in American Gangster alongside Russell Crowe and will do so again in the upcoming The Next Three Days, so the idea isn’t totally out there. Eli Roth is co-writing and co-producing the film, and has apparently brought buddy Quentin Tarantino along in some capacity (though the original reports aren’t clear what exactly Tarantino is going to be doing – producing, perhaps? Or, god forbid, acting?)

If this turns out to be true – and let’s face it, stranger things have happened – it would be a nice break out of the mold for Crowe. It seems the man hasn’t been in anything but serious dramas or epics since Gladiator, and I’m sure most of us would love to see the man loosen up a little. We all know he needs to!