Been waiting patiently for Keanu Reeves to put on another "Whoa!" martial arts display like in The Matrix? You should be pretty happy with what's coming up then, as the actor will put his skills on display in 47 Ronin and in his directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi, and now there are new looks at both.
First up, Keanu stars as a wandering samurai in 47 Ronin, the directorial debut by the one-hot Carl Erik Rinsch. Remember, Rinsch was tapped early on to helm Prometheus before Ridley Scott took over, and now we'll finally get to see what he can do on a large scale. Based on the legendary Chinese historical tale and starring Rinko Kikuchi, Tadanobu Asano, and Hiroyuki Sanada, the film follows ronin seeking revenge for the death of their master. Apparently they'll have to fight through a number of magical creatures in order to do it. 47 Ronin opens on Christmas Day.
Keanu steps behind the camera for the first time with Man of Tai Chi, a film which promises more than 40 minutes of martial arts action, all choreographed by the amazing Yuen Woo-Ping, who developed the fights scenes for The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill, and The Grandmaster. So the dude knows his stuff, and should be enough to squash any fears this will be a total disaster because we know it'll look amazing. Keanu steps into a villain role as the wealthy head of an underground fight club who forces a tai chi master (Tiger Chen) to fight in his tournament. Man of Tai Chi will be available on VOD beginning September 27th, but will premiere at TIFF first.
47 RONIN : Official International Trailer #2 by itsartmag
