Rapper debuts as film director
The Man With the Iron Fists Starring: RZA, Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Ricky Yune Directed by: RZA Running time: 96 minutes Parental advisory: 18A, gory violence Playing at: South Common, Galaxy, North Common, Scotiabank, Windermere, Clareview, City Centre, Spruce Grove
Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA has staying power. He showed that by excelling in the music world for more than 20 years.
So, he relied on that kind of spunk to make his directorial film debut. When he couldn’t get studio backing for his chopsocky flick The Man With the Iron Fists, he raised the $20 million on his own to finish the job he started.
“The process from conception to birth was about seven years,” says RZA, promoting his film from Los Angeles. It opens Nov. 2. “But I felt like I delivered a healthy baby.”
The rapper-turned-filmmaker is also proud to say he collaborated with Oscar-winner Russell Crowe and Charlie’s Angels headliner Lucy Liu, who co-star in his movie. Besides that, he received some screenplay assistance from his buddy Quentin Tarantino.
Certainly, the martial arts flick, set in 19th-century China, leans toward that postmodern Tarantino feeling.
In the movie, RZA portrays a blacksmith caught up in the intrigue surrounding a shipment of gold. Crowe plays a mercenary who is after his reward, and Liu is a brothel madam embroiled in the story.
The writer and director admits that he’s “stretching some things a bit,” but he stresses that he wanted to capture the high-concept martial arts action he grew up watching in John Woo movies.
That’s one of the main reasons he decided to film The Man With the Iron Fists in Shanghai instead of a U.S. city, which would offer fewer logistical hassles but a lot less authentic scene-setting.
“I wanted my movie to be authentic,” the 43-year-old says. “Forget the easy way out. I went where they made those kinds of movies. I was doing my version of the East-West collaboration.”
Convincing Crowe to sign on was a little more challenging. They had become friends while filming American Gangster together, but the Aussie actor was at first unsure.
“One important thing I said to him was that I would protect the persona of who is on screen,” RZA says. “I think he finally trusted me as an artist.”
Now, RZA is working on a second project. “Now that I understand what I am doing, maybe I can do this one in three years.”
The Brooklyn, N.Y., native established himself as WuTang Clan’s producer, arranger and writer in the 1990s. The Grammy winner collaborated with various artists and released multiple solo projects, as well as shooting many of the music videos for his songs.
By 2000, he made a cameo in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Since then, he’s showed up in mainstream films, including Adam Sandler’s Funny People, Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, and the aforementioned American Gangster.
He’ll play Blind Master in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, set for release next year. He’s also co-developing a remake of The Last Dragon with Samuel L. Jackson attached. On TV, he did a nine-episode arc on Showtime’s Californication.
“Russ (Crowe) said he saw most of those (Californication) episodes, and he told me that he must’ve rubbed off on me,” RZA says.
“I told him I picked up a few of his American Gangster tricks when he wasn’t looking.”