My love of movie people punching and kicking each other in the most flamboyant way possible is well documented, so it didn’t take much to get me excited for Triple Threat. The just-announced movie is being directed by John Wick co-director Chad Stahelski and will star martial arts superstars Iko Uwais (The Raid 1 & 2), Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, The Protector) and Tiger Chen (Man of Tai Chi). Frankly, that’s all I needed to here, so I think that’s a wrap on this article! Early day!
…Oh, you actually wanted more details? Sigh. Well, I guess I could do that. The news was reported by THR from the American Film Market conference that’s currently happening in Santa Monica in America. Dwayne Smith – no, no the West Indian cricketer – penned the script for the upcoming film which “which revolves around a Chinese martial artist who goes to Mexico to rescue his ex-wife and their son after they are kidnapped by a drug cartel.”
I guess that would make Chen said martial artist since Uwais is Indonesian and Jaa is Thai. This is admittedly a little bit disappointing, as I’m a much bigger fan of the latter two’s work. However with Stahelski at the helm, and seeing what he could do with Keanu Reeves in John Wick, I’m confident that he can get a much better showing out of Chen than… well, Keanu Reeves did when he directed Man of Tai Chi. And just in case you were wondering about those degrees of separation, Stahelski was one of the stunt coordinators on Reeves’ The Matrix, while Chen was also a member of the stunt team who helped to prepare Reeves for his kung fu fighting. Chen and Uwais even shared the screen in Man of Tai Chi though that fight was far too brief for my liking.
Uwais and Jaa need no real introduction though, as they both exploded onto the scene in the most violent ways possible with their own star-making vehicles. Jaa, who’s been at this the longest out of the three, has admittedly starred in some stinkers from time to time, but there’s no denying his incredible (and incredibly violent) martial arts skills. Uwais marked himself as one serious talent to watch with his performances in Gareth Evans’ two The Raid movies and I’ve been looking forward to his next big production (two minute cameos in Star Wars: The Force Awakens doesn’t count).
Last Updated: November 7, 2016
