First Trailer For Keanu Reeves’ Man Of Taichi [VIDEO]

Keanu Reeves may have fallen off the Hollywood map since the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but his heart and soul still remains in cinema today, as he makes a directorial debut with Man Of Taichi. A martial arts film under the supervision of legendary choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix Trilogy) is now in post-production, and Reeves had the following to say with MTV on why it was shot in China:

“It was tough. It was just too big and too much. We had to ship it to China. All sorts of practical consideration ran into the vision and the dream,” he said. “It certainly influenced the way that we went forward in terms of shooting some of the fight scenes in terms of the organicness and movement of how we shot some of the fight scenes. I just couldn’t go on top. [laughs] I couldn’t do an overhead shot with no cut into a close up.”

Man Of Taichi stars Tiger Hu Chen (former stunt man on The Matrix) as a young martial artist “who’s lured into an underground tournament run by an unsavoury chap (Reeves) dead set on corrupting him”, according to Collider.

The film also costars Simon Yam (Ip Man), Karen Mok (Black Mask), and Iko Uwais (The Raid: Redemption). No release date has been officially announced for Man Of Taichi yet, but is expected to be out some time this year.