Judging from Keanu Reeves' performance of a simple-minded high schooler in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", no one would think he was capable of martial arts. While he proved his action-hero mettle in "Speed" and "Point Break", he made everyone say "whoa" when he became a fist-throwing, leg-wielding, leather-clad phenom in "The Matrix". As he said, "I know kung fu", and we all believed him.
In late 2011, it was announced that Keanu Reeves would wire-jump onto the other side of the camera and make his directorial debut with a then-unnamed kung fu movie. In July 2012, Keanu released a video showing himself, a crew, and two stuntmen in a studio testing out one of Bot & Dolly's new motion control cameras. On an ever-moving, swiveling arm, the camera was able to spin and twirl around the two performers with awesome, stylistic results. In the video, Keanu went on to say: "the ambition for me was trying to get what I’ve seen done before with CGI and putting the camera in places where you couldn’t get. And have the flesh and blood elements there."
In the same month, it was reported that "The Raid: Redemption"'s Iko Uwais had signed on to join the adventure, which now carried the name "The Man of Tai Chi".
As of early 2013, some sites claim that Keanu filmed the movie in 2012 and that it's in an unknown stage of post-production. While this is totally possible, both the this film's imdb and Wikipedia pages are emptier than ghost towns, and no official on-set photos, stills, posters, or teasers have been released anywhere. So what's happening?
Perhaps we'll find out more when Reeves promotes his newest movie "47 Ronin", a fantastic take on the famous tale of the titular, vengeance-seeking group. Keep your eyes open for any additional news in the coming months and check out the proof-of-concept video if you haven't seen it already.
















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