Lupita Nyong’o Starring in John Woo’s ‘The Killer’ Remake
It seems like everyone is remaking some classic movie these days, but director John Woo is taking it one step further: he’s directing a remake of his own movie, The Killer, but with one very exciting twist: the main character will be a woman, played by Lupita Nyong’o.
John Woo’s thrilling action classic is being resurrected and revamped, per The Hollywood Reporter, with Woo once again at the helm and Nyong’o in talks to be cast as the lead, an assassin whose name in the original 1989 movie was Ah Jong (and who was played by Chow Yun-Fat). The plot of the original follows an assassin who accidentally damages the eyes of a singer during one of his hit jobs, and in order to get the money for her surgery he takes one last assignment.
To say that casting Nyong’o in this role is beyond cool would be an understatement. Female assassins are so hot right now, as evidenced by the recent surge of movies and TV shows like Atomic Blonde, Red Sparrow, Killing Eve, and The Villainess that all feature complicated female characters who murder to make a living. Plus, the fact that Woo is the one remaking it and gender-switching it in this way is also cool. The Killer was the movie that introduced John Woo to the West and to Hollywood, where he became a huge influence for directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.