It’s not often that a director decides they want to remake one of their own movies. And when it does happen, usually it’s for a film that maybe fell beneath the radar, or is being done for an entirely different culture. For John Woo, he’s taken to remaking his stone-cold classic, The Killer, starring Chow-yun Fat. But this version features an entirely different star, and an unexpected one: Nathalie Emmanuel.
The plot remains basically the same. Emmanuel stars as a legendary assassin who refuses to kill a blinded young woman, making her the target of other more dangerous forces, and attracting the attention of a dogged detective.
Woo, who recently directed the Christmas thriller Silent Night, is a legendary action director who has found success both in his native Hong Kong and here in America. He seems to be entering a new phase of his career, focusing again on smaller, blistering action movies of the type he’s best known for.
Emmanuel is joined in the cast by Omar Sy, Sam Worthington, Diana Silvers, and Saïd Taghmaoui. Lupita Nyong’o was originally cast in the lead role but dropped out due to scheduling issues. But Emmanuel looks more than up for the physicality of the role, leaning on her experience as part of the Fast & Furious franchise.
The Killer is a Peacock exclusive, opening on August 23rd.
SYNOPSIS: From the Oscar® winning producer of Oppenheimer, the kinetic action thriller stars Emmy nominee Nathalie Emmanuel (The Fast Saga, Game of Thrones) as Zee, a mysterious and infamous assassin known, and feared, in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead. But when, during an assignment from her shadowy mentor and handler (Avatar’s Sam Worthington), Zee refuses to kill a blinded young woman (Diana Silvers; Ma, Booksmart) in a Paris nightclub, the decision will disintegrate Zee’s alliances, attract the attention of a savvy police investigator (Golden Globe nominee Omar Sy; Jurassic World franchise, Lupin), and plunge her into a sinister criminal conspiracy that will set her on a collision course with her own past.
