The Good Doctor and Altered Carbon actor Will Yun Lee is paving the way to launch two new endeavors to inaugurate newly formed production outfit Seoul Street, with Wonder Street partners Christine Holder and Mike Holder, according to Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr.
Close to thirty years in his professional stunt career with just a few directing notches on his belt, it was last year that stunt coordinator Mike Gunther set out to shepherd Rogue Warfare in what is expected to be the first in a series of films.
Richard Morgan’s 2002 novel, Altered Carbon, has something of a readership. This, coupled with actor Joel Kinnaman’s own fanbase has otherwise bolstered something potentially awesome for Laeta Kalogridis’s own upcoming serial treatment of the novel as we await its debut premiere on February 2.
For this, we now have a brand new trailer immersing viewers even further into the dual-sided world of a highly-skilled ex-Envoy Corps soldier reawakend to a new body and harrowing adventures. That role has since been handed to actors Joel Kinnaman (Robocop, Suicide Squad) with Will Yun-Lee (Elektra, Spy)portraying the preceding end of our protagonist’s tale when the show arrives.
In the distant future, human consciousness can be digitized and downloaded into different bodies. Brought back to life after 250 years by Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) the richest man on Earth, ex-Envoy soldier Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman / Will Yun Lee) must solve Bancroft’s attempted murder for the chance to live again in a world he doesn’t recognize.
Check out the trailer below and be excited! February 2 will be a great day for television in my opinion!
Will Yun Lee (Torque, Elektra, The Wolverine, Falling Water) is reportedly set to star as the notorious crime boss, Little Pete, as well as produce in the forthcoming adaptation of Richard H. Dillon’s 2012 novel, Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Australian scribe Morgan Duncan and producer Michael Thomas (The 33) are adapting the script which will set the tone for Lee to apply his exponential Tae Kwon Do training for the film’s action.
The phrase itself, “Hatchet Men”, takes its cues from the period centric to the book – between the late 1880s and early 1920s, where hatchet-wielding killers would silence the rivals of their bosses amid the gang upheaval in San Francisco’s Chinatown at the time. Crime ran rampant with the availability of opium, slave girls, gang violence and corrupt politicians at the beckoncall of their mob cohorts, and at the center of it all was the infamous and charasmatic Little Pete who eventually used his robust skills in fighting and English-speaking to rise to power and privilege.
“I’ve always gravitated towards the rich untold stories of Asians in America,” says Lee, per the exclusive report at Deadline. “Finding a world where you can bring the kinetic energy of The Raid and the texture of Boardwalk Empire is an exciting project to be a part of.”
Also producing are Mark Holder and Christine Holder for Zero Gravity.
Look anywhere on YouTube and you’ll find any number of independently conceived concepts attributed to the Ameritoku crossover series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. There are a few in the works on smaller scales as well as a feature film from Lionsgate and Saban, and while many of these could likely hit all the similar tones of a kid-friendly show, there’s at least one vision that’s taken a life of its own which completely undoes it all.
That said, Detention helmer Joseph Kahn and Dirty Laundry one-shot producer, Bootleg Universe’s own Adi Shankar have a hell of a way of interpreting Ameritoku, and their latest contribution to the fandom with their own one-shot, Power/Rangers, is a distinct example of this. Written by Kahn, Dutch Southern and lead actor James Van Der Beek, Kahn‘s is a version which removes the kid-friendly appeal and replaces it with all the trimmings of a big-scale epic, now host to an alternative look into a dark, tragic future where the Machine Empire has taken over, our heroes have fallen and virtually nothing is what it seems, showcasing a newer perspective on the shortfalls of being young and granted supernatural abilities to take on larger-than-life enemies, seen or otherwise. Essentially, its Ender’s Game by way of Tokusatsu with a shit-ton of NSFW storytelling and action with a level of violence and imagery, and character delivery almost perfectly suited for an R-rated concept. It’s what you can expect from the guy who also helped put together Dredd and the newly-released Gangs Of Wasseypur, and so by all means, I have no complaints.
Director’s Statement:
Deboot of the Power Rangers. My take on the FAN FILM. Not a pilot, not a series, not for profit, strictly for exhibition. This is a bootleg experiment not affiliated or endorsed by Saban Entertainment or Lionsgate nor is it selling any product. I claim no rights to any of the characters (don’t send me any money, not kickstarted, this film is free). This is the NSFW version. An alternate safe version is on youtube.
You can watch the safe version by clicking HERE, and while this may not be a pitch video for a bigger project, it damn well proves just how amazing a pairing Kahn and Shankar are, and just how worth it they are as artists. I’m keen to this.
Power/Rangers also stars Katie Sackhoff, Gichi Gamba, Russ Bain and Will Yun Lee with fight choreography by Don Thai Theerathada and the team over at 87Eleven. Watch below and click here to read more about it at Drew McWeeny’s exclusive article at HitFix.
Update (2:00pm EST): Yes, the video does exist. Although it appears that our dear director may have been told to impede its availability from the public for the time being by someone higher-up. Upsetting, I know. But the SFW version is still viewable. Watch it now!
You may also read another version of this article at HJU.
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