The upcoming action thriller ‘THE KILLER’ (2024) to be premiered on Peacock is directed by John Woo. This action-packed movie stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam Worthington, Diana Silvers, Saïd Taghmaoui, and the newcomer Hugo Diego Garcia. The film focuses on a professional killer who gains the attentions of his employers as a target after a failed job. This time he becomes aware of betrayal, violence and deception and he discovers a network of lies which can change his life. A story of revenge and an individual’s attempt to change and find redemption as well as theme of retributive violence in the Algerian war of independence. In the universe created by John Woo, concerns of treachery, honor, and atonement are not just dominant, but real.
IS PEACOCK’S ‘THE KILLER’ A TRUE STORY?
THE KILLER movie is not based on a true story. All the story writing and the characters are just fit for an action hero movie and are purely fictitious. Though, the movie is a remake of the innovative John Woo’s masterpiece of the 1989 named THE KILLER which is unforgettable in the action movies’ catalogue.
THE KILLER 2024 is a remake of Woo’s Hong Kong film of the same title released in 1989 that starred Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee, and Sally Yeh. The original version had Chow Yun-fat as Ah Jong, an experienced killer who during a firing incident, shoots and blinds a singer. The film is about a man who tries to reform and in order to do so, he takes one final job in order to pay for her medical bills. This movie packed all the action one could wish for; the drama was as touching as needed; the ideas of honor and friendship, the uneasy duo of the hitman and the police detective.
Woo’s THE KILLER (1989) paid much respect to the style and methodology of such directors as Sam Peckinpah, Don Siegel and Jean-Pierre Melville. In particular, Melville’s 1967 film Le Samouraï about an existential hit man, have left a deep impact on Woo’s manner of portraying the human feelings and the ethical code of contract killers. The intense action scenes, shootouts covering most of the screen time, and melodramatic story made the 1989 film a cult movie; it prepared Woo for work in Hollywood.
The new version of the reminder for the year 2024, brings new conditions to the story and this makes it attractive for the contemporary community. The decision of John Woo to change gender of the protagonist narrated by Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee – skillful assassin reflecting the role of Chow Yun-fat. Omar Sy would portray Sey, a cop to be who will somewhat work hand in hand with Zee in a Woodard-foster like fashion.
Compared to the original 1989’s film, the new one is far more psychological with the specifics of the main character’s morality and his loyal to his friend. There are also matters of style: the locale is switched from Hong Kong to Paris; there are new characters, such as a cabaret singer named Jenn, who, like in the original, suffers temporary blindness during a shooting spree.
Even though the basic plot line is present something new is added and modified which makes it seem as if the movie is telling a new story. Thanks to Woo’s director’s chair THE KILLER (2024) continues that tradition and adds more layers to its action-packed plot that address more profound psychological and emotional issues.
Though THE KILLER is not based on a true story, Woo habitually introduces ethical dilemmas into human experience to confuse his characters and set them into a conflict of good and evil. In this version set in 2024, Omar Sy is Sey, a French cop involved in an uneasy cooperation with Zee.
In other words, despite the thundering, heart-pounding feeling that THE KILLER may impress, it is completely fictional in Woo’s mind. The film which shares much with filmmakers such as Jean-Pierre Melville and Sam Peckinpah, or with Woo’s love for operatics, has little to do with reality. Woo’s direction is schemed in such a way as to fulfill the need for action and at the same time to provide the audience with a multi-dimensional look at her characters.
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