I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later and I know it’s going to piss off many old school martial arts fanboys but it looks like it is going to happen no matter what. Film Business Asia is reporting that The Weinstein Co and Celestial Pictures are joining forces to remake two classic Shaw Brothers’ titles, The Avenging Eagle and Come Drink with Me.
This will be the first foray into English language productions for Celestial but, not to worry, this isn’t the first time Harvey Weinstein has tackled a martial arts production with David Thwaites helping him out. The two films will be scripted by John Fusco who is also the one scripting the Yuen Woo-ping directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: Green Destiny, also produced by Harvey and David.
The Weinsteins acquired the home video and remake rights to select Shaw Brothers titles back in 2003 when they were still running Miramax and, luckily for them, they were able to keep those rights when Miramax was bought up and they started The Weinstein Co.
I personally haven’t seen many Shaw Brothers films, only a handful at the NYAFF over the past couple of years, so I can’t get too frustrated even though a remake of those films won’t have nearly the same amount of charm as those old ridiculous titles. What I can say is that there is a good chance the remakes could be better, at least in quality, but I don’t know if I agree that it should be remade in English, I think that’s where a lot of martial arts movies lose their edge but this business is all about making money and it’s obviously more marketable here in the states if it’s in English. I wonder, do you think they could get Donnie Yen to star? I could go along with a remake if that happened.
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