More details emerge on The RZA’s martial arts epic The Man With the Iron Fist

After having played bit parts in a number of films, Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA’s movie career is about to jump to a new level as he’s set to direct and star in a kung-fu epic that he also wrote. Now NBC LA has reported new details on The RZA’s martial arts epic The Man With the Iron Fist.

The Man With the Iron Fist is described as a hyper-stylized take on the kung fu genre, for which The RZA has repeatedly expressed an abiding love for over the years. Horror auteur Eli Roth is producing The Man With the Iron Fist, and he’s also got Quentin Tarantino in his corner, who had the musician/filmmaker on the set of Kill Bill.

According to the report, in The Man With the Iron Fist, RZA will play the title role of a village blacksmith in feudal China who supplies his fellow townsfolk with weapons to defend themselves from an invading horde.

“It started with a trip RZA and I took with Quentin (Tarantino) to Iceland in 2005,” Roth told Deadline Hollywood. “We flew back, ended up snowed in in Boston, staying at my parents’ house in Newton. Turned out that my dad and RZA grew up in Brooklyn and went to the same Brownsville junior high school and swam in the same public pool. He hooked me on his dream of directing and reinventing the Kung Fu movie genre. It reminded me of my love of horror”.

A couple of years later, while Tarantino and Roth were filming Inglourious Basterds, RZA began working on the project in earnest.

Below is an interview with RZA discussing his book The Tao of Wu.