Actor/director Bill Paxton is in talks to direct a film version of the cult TV series “Kung Fu”, which ran from 1972-1975 on ABC. The show followed half-Chinese Shaolin monk and kung fu master Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) as he traveled through the Old West in search of his American half brother. Caine’s journey was interspersed with flashbacks to his younger days living in a Chinese monastery.
The film is scheduled to begin production next summer.
Paxton has a little more time on his hands now that “Big Love” has ended its run after five seasons on HBO, and he’s clearly looking to get his hands dirty behind the camera again, having previously directed the 2002 thriller “Frailty” starring Matthew McConaughey and 2005 biopic “The Greatest Game Every Played”, starring Shia LaBeouf as champion golfer Francis Ouimet.
The original “Kung Fu” was followed more than a decade later by a 1986 TV film entitled “Kung Fu: The Movie”, as well as “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues”, a syndicated series which ran for four seasons in the mid 1990s. Carradine reprised his role in both.
The story was broken by Deadline.
What do the “Kung Fu” fans out there think of this news? Any casting ideas?