How’s this for ambitious? Legendary filmmaker John Woo is readying a Hollywood comeback with Silent Night, a literally dialogue-free action thriller starring Joel Kinnaman (The Suicide Squad). Deadline‘s AFM-attentive Mike Fleming Jr. broke the news and revealed the following:
Sources tell Deadline the story is basic, as a normal father heads into the underworld to avenge his young son’s death.
Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Christian Mercuri and Lori Tilkin are reportedly producing with Capstone’s Ruzanna Kegeyan overseeing the project with Joe Gatta. As Fleming Jr. reports, Capstone is in negotiations to finance.
This is a big move for Woo in the years since he transitioned from directing hits like Hard Boiled, The Killer And Once A Thief, to riding out his prolific successes on films like Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Antoine Fuqua’s The Replacement Killers, among other titles that fizzled out during his reign stateside ’til 2003.
At one point, Woo’s sustenance might have seen him reimagine The Killer with actress Lupita Nyong’o inheriting the classic assassin role portrayed by Chow Yun-fat. That project remains undeveloped, though with Woo’s other overseas prospects having since panned out with Red Cliff, Reign Of Assassins, The Crossing 1 & 2 and Manhunt, Silent Night reads like a delightfully surprising and welcoming bit of news.
Lead pic: MUBI