Are these stories really happening, or are my eyes so fuzzy right now (it's nearly 1.30am in the U.K.) that I'm reading things funny? Because I'm pretty sure I just read about
'The Ghost of Barry White' rom-com pitch from Joel Schmaucher and if that wasn't crazy enough for one day, I'm now that
Russell Crowe has been cast in Wu-Tang Clan member
RZA's kung-fu/grindhouse flick
The Man With The Iron Fist that Universal recently backed with $20 million big ones. The movie is Hip-Hop star RZA's second directorial effort (the first -
Wu-Tang Vs. The Golden Phoenix - which looks at this point like it may never be released), and is being produced by
Eli Roth. We previously haven't bothered speaking about the project as we imagined it would either never be made, or like his previous effort - would never be seen but WOW, talk about the casting coup of the century and a story we simply couldn't ignore. The Man With The Iron Fist (how many think
Disney's lawyers will be all over this?) will find RZA lead as a weapons-making village blacksmith in feudal China and mixes "kung fu with a spaghetti western mindset and a hip hop influence." You know - a movie Quentin Tarantino and his friends will go gaga over. So, just how did RZA bag the Oscar winning Russell Crowe, an actor who must get several dozen screenplays at his door each day?
Would it be because he is playing a character credited as 'the baddest man alive'? or has he become so pally pally with RZA, with whom they both starred in American Gangster and the forthcoming The Next Three Days together that Crowe is doing a favour for a friend? Probably. We know they are pretty close because on Ridley Scott's movie they clicked so well that they even recorded an unreleased track for the soundtrack. Filming is set for December in Shanghai and it'll be interesting to see how large Crowe's role will actually be.