Keanu Reeves Lands Financing for Directorial Debut 'Man of Tai Chi'

I'm sure this is going to rile up a few people. The Wrap is reporting that financing is coming together on a project called Man of Tai Chi, a Mandarin-and-English-language movie that Keanu Reeves will star in and direct as his feature directorial debut. Reeves is currently filming Carl Rinsch's samurai film 47 Ronin, but is working on this project as well, a martial arts film that includes "some serious fighting scenes" and will feature Reeves as the villain. Man of Tai Chi will also star Tiger Chen, a member of the kung fu team from Matrix and stuntman on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Village Roadshow Pictures is developing.
The big news is that Reeves is in negotiations with China Film Group and Village Roadshow Pictures to get funding for Man of Tai Chi. While we haven't mentioned it before, this project has been around a while, and Reeves revealed some major details to MTV earlier this year. "There's 18 fights. We've timed it out. It's about 40 minutes of fighting," he said. Damn! "I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie. Good story, good plot — but let's get some good kung fu going!" Glad to see him in the fighting spirit again. Reeves said back then they want to "do it as kind of a co-production with CFG" and it turns out that deal may have come through. To be honest, this sounds pretty damn cool, even with Reeves, and I'd actually like to see it made.