John Woo comments on The Killer remake and Face/Off sequel

Silent Night, the latest film from the legendary John Woo, reached theatres on December 1st (you can read our review at THIS LINK) – and while Woo was doing the press rounds for his new movie, The Hollywood Reporter took the opportunity to ask him about a couple revivals of his older works: the remake of his 1989 film The Killer, which Woo is directing himself, and the sequel to his 1997 film Face/Off, which is set to be directed by Godzilla vs. Kong‘s Adam Wingard.

Asked why he has decided to remake his own film with the new take on The Killer (which went into production this past summer), Woo said, “Well, the project was in the works for many years, but it was hard to find a director to direct it. So when I came back [to the States], we got support from Universal, and they asked me to do it. So I decided to give it a try, and we have a very good script from Brian Helgeland. He’s so wonderful, and he wrote the new movie to look so much different from my work. It looks like another movie, not mine. So I took the job and we’ll see how it works.“

The remake of The Killer was stuck in development hell for decades before Woo decided to direct it himself. Walter Hill was going to direct it at one time, John H. Lee was going to direct at another. The likes of Richard Gere, Denzel Washington, Michelle Yeoh, and Lupita Nyong’o have been considered for roles throughout the years. It has finally made it into production at the Peacock streaming service.

Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, and Sally Yeh, the original The Killer was about an assassin who accidentally damages the eyes of a singer. The two fall in love, and he decides to perform one last hit in order to pay for a corneal transplant to prevent her from going blind. Woo is directing the remake from a screenplay by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, with rewrites by Eran Creevy and Brian Helgeland. Lupin‘s Omar Sy and Nathalie Emmanuel of Game of Thrones star.

The Face/Off sequel Wingard is developing with screenwriter Simon Barrett will be a direct follow-up to Woo’s film. Scripted by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, the original Face/Off centered on FBI agent Sean Archer. He is so obsessed with catching a homicidal sociopath named Castor Troy, who is responsible for killing the fed’s son, that the agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and takes the mug of his nemesis so he can be sent to prison to find out a bomb’s whereabouts and stop an attack. The plan goes awry when the bad guy wakes up and takes the face of the FBI agent. Soon, the new-faced Castor visits the agent with the villainous face and takes glee in taunting him, telling him that the face surgeons have been killed, that the good guy is stuck looking in the mirror at the face he hates most, and that the villain is going home to bed his wife and take over his home life. It escalates into a series of choreographed action sequences.

The idea is to bring stars Nicolas Cage and John Travolta back for the new film, which is also said to deal with Archer and Troy’s adult children.

Asked if he ever envisioned a Face/Off sequel, Woo said, “No. I once thought that if I ever had a chance to make a Face/Off sequel, I would like it to star two female characters. Two women exchange faces to do something. So I suggested it to the studio, but they didn’t pay much attention to it.“

What do you think of these older John Woo projects being revived, with a remake of The Killer and a sequel to Face/Off? Share your thoughts on these projects by leaving a comment below.