By Ever wondered how or why the Great Wall of China was built? No? Well, the question you never asked is about to get an answer you were never looking for, not courtesy of Wikipedia but Last Samurai director Ed Zwick, who has agreed to direct and co-write The Great Wall for Legendary Pictures’ new Asian branch. It’s another example of Hollywood tailoring a project with the intention of appealing to Chinese audiences and getting around the country’s ferocious censorship rules, while maintaining some global appeal.
Naturally I’m being a smidgen facetious in describing the movie as an answer to a question no-one asked, as it’s a pretty interesting story with plenty of possibilities for Zwick to indulge his love of big action scenes and exotic settings. He’s not what you’d call a subtle director, and let’s hope he doesn’t dump some white guy into the centre of the action this time like he usually does, but his intention of mixing historically important stories with mainstream appeal is commendable. Whatever their other flaws, his movies are usually pretty entertaining, so this could be worth keeping an eye on. Plus it’ll have Mongols, and they’re ALWAYS fun.
[via Indiewire]