Cannes: John Woo on Returning to His Roots With ‘Manhunt’ Reboot (Q&A)1 min read

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For John Woo, remaking Manhunt, the famed 1976 Japanese thriller from director Junya Sato, is a dream come true. Finally, Woo could pay tribute to the film’s star, Ken Takakura, the actor who was a huge inspiration to the director of such action classics as The Killer and Hard Boiled. As the first foreign film released in China following the end of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, the original Manhunt, featuring Takakura as a tough cop accused of corruption, had a great influence on filmmakers there.

The Manhunt reboot, which starts shooting in the fall, is billed as Woo’s return to the straight-up action thrillers that made his name. Media Asia is producing and will be doing presales on the movie at Cannes.

Woo, 69, who grew up in Hong Kong and whose Hollywood output includes Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II, will be shifting the action to South Korea for Manhunt and working with a Korean and Chinese cast.

In an interview with THR at Media Asia’s Beijing studio, the married father of three spoke about finishing his two-part romantic war epic The Crossing and the differences between the Chinese and U.S. film industries, and discussed his only collaboration with Takakura, which occurred at the funeral of Kinji Fukasaku (Tora! Tora! Tora!), when Takakura read aloud, in Japanese, a eulogy Woo wrote for the legendary director.

Read the full Q&A here >>                                                                                                Via The Hollywood Reporter