Folks who have fallen in love with shows like Breaking Bad and are current viewers of The Walking Dead series can now begin preparing themselves for a little more martial arts in their line-up. Deadline is now reporting that producing partners Al Gough and Miles Millar (Shanghai Knights, Smallville) are now behind the forthcoming production of the new AMC martial arts drama series, Badlands, which, while loosely based on late author Wu Cheng’en’s often film-translated late 16th century tale, “Journey To The West”, carries a description that reads as follows:
In a land controlled by feudal barons, Badlands tells the story of a great warrior and a young boy who embark on a journey across a dangerous land to find enlightenment.
It’s pretty early to suggest anything in terms of how the series will look, but it will be interesting, to say the least. In the meantime, AMC executive vice president of original programming, production and digital content, Joel Stillerman, is offering his own optimism in conjunction with Friday’s announcement, crediting at least two other names to the project.
“We are incredibly excited to help Al and Miles, as well as Stacey and Michael from Double Feature to bring Badlands to life,” said Stillerman. “This creative team has so much expertise in bringing a fresh take to classic genres from their film and television experience, and their take on martial arts will be no exception. Along with a beautiful story, they’ve also assembled the A-Team of martial arts fight choreography in Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung.”.
Wu and Fung have done an incredible job with their own work, particularly with the establishment of their own company, Diversion Pictures back in 2011 with Tai Chi 0 and Tai Chi Hero – both directed by Fung, and Wu’s most recent appearance in director Kenneth Bi’s sci-fi thriller, Control. Both have also made their own moves beyond the China market as of late, with Wu appearing in RZA’s 2012 kung fu labor of love, The Man With The Iron Fists, and last year’s intergalactic thriller Europa Report, with an expected performance in Universal Pictures’ 2016 fantasy adventure, Warcraft; Fung is currently on deck to debut actor and martial artist Alain Mossi in the martial arts action reboot, Kickboxer, this fall.
Gough and Millar will operate as showrunners, and will write amd executive produce the series with Wu and Fung producing, in addition to Oscar-nominated producers Stacy Sher and Michael Shamberg (Pulp Fiction, Contagion). Badlands is currently gearing up for a late 2015/early 2016 debut, with international distribution courtesy of Entertainment One Television.
Stay tuned for more info, and do subscribe to AMC if you haven’t yet done so. This could be fun.