Baz Luhrmann has hopped between genres in his career, though he’s usually maintained some blend of period romance and music for the likes of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia and last year’s The Great Gatsby. But if he takes on a new job for Legendary Pictures, we could be in for a very different Luhrmann movie, as he’s in talks to make **Kung Fu{
Legendary has been trying to turn the 1970s David Carradine-starring show into a film for years now. When it last kicked our news radar, word was that Bill Paxton might be picking up the megaphone to get it made. It would seem that that didn’t work out and now Luhrmann is considering the idea. The Hollywood Reporter cautions that it’s unclear how far the talks have progressed: for all we know, Luhrmann is simply chewing over the notion.
If he does go ahead, he’ll likely take a new pass at the script written by Black Swan’s John McLaughlin, which adapts the show. Kung Fu, which ran between 1972 and 1975, followed Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk who travelled to the American West looking for his brother.
McLaughlin’s script apparently changes the setting back to China, but who knows where Luhrmann would want to take it. It certainly has potential – not least in design terms, but it remains to be seen what a Baz Luhrmann kung fu film might look like.