Silent Night: John Woo directing dialogue-free action flick starring Joel Kinnaman

Time to break out the slow-motion and doves because John Woo is getting back in the director’s chair. The iconic action filmmaker will direct his first English language production since 2003’s Paycheck starring Ben Affleck with a film that features zero dialogue. Silent Night will star Joel Kinnaman as a “normal father who heads into the underworld to avenge his young son’s death.”

Woo is known for his iconic movies The Killer, Hard Boiled, and A Better Tomorrow before he made his foray into Hollywood with Hard Target, Face/Off, The Replacement Killers, and Mission: Impossible II. Woo has worked steadily in China over the last two decades, notably with the two-part epic Red Cliff and 2017’s Manhunt.

Silent Night is currently being shopped at the AFM Market with Capstone in negotiations to finance the project. They are comprised of John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk amongst others. Casting is underway on the film. Kinnaman recently returned as Rick Flag in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and previously headlined the remake of Robocop as well as the first season of Netflix’s sci-fi series Altered Carbon. Erica Lee, Christian Mercuri, and Lori Tilkin are also producing with Capstone’s Ruzanna Kegeyan overseeing with Joe Gatta.

What do you think about John Woo and Joel Kinnaman joining forces for this unique premise? Can modern audiences handle a full-length feature film with no dialogue? The silent protagonist thing might have worked for Nicolas Cage in Willy’s Wonderland but I wonder, will lightning strike twice? My thoughts are that if anyone can pull this off, it’s Woo. He’s a master of his craft and has proven on many occasions that he knows how to deliver the goods no matter the circumstances. I’ll be interested to see how Kinnaman handles the role, even if he is the strong silent type in general. Let us know what you think of this project in the comments section down below.