Keanu Reeves has long wanted to make martial arts movie** Man Of Tai Chi**, but script issues, money issues and scheduling issues made it a five year-plus process. Finally it's on its way to Western audiences, and here's a new Apple trailer to prove it.
Though Reeves himself stars in the film as the ethically worrying underground fight organiser Donaka Mark, the film's real hero is Tiger Chen, Reeves' martial arts trainer and stuntman during the** Matrix **trilogy who's here elevated to leading man status. He is The Man Of Tai Chi, though you can bet your last blue pill he knows kung fu too.
Chen's character is called Tiger Chen Linhu, and he starts off as a peaceful man who happens to be very good at (the generally defence-rather-than-offence-led) Tai Chi before Mark twists him into a killer.
The script was penned by relative newcomer Michael G. Cooney, who's previously only written for computer games (Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 6), with additional contributions from Reeves, who told the assembled reporters at the Man Of Tai Chi Cannes press conference that the story was in part based on the life of Chen himself - though we hope the real Chen hasn't killed too many people in underground fighting clubs.
A Chinese-American production, Man Of Tai Chi was shot multilingually to appeal to both markets, with a US release date set for November 1, 2013, several months after its Chinese premiere back in July, where it was a box office disappointment on its opening weekend, coming in fifth. The previous trailer for the film is below.