IGN has your exclusive first look at The Killer, iconic action director John Woo’s radical reimagining of his 1989 Hong Kong classic that will stream exclusively on Peacock on August 23. The first three official photos from the film can be seen in the gallery below.
This new film telling of The Killer stars The Fast Saga’s Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee, a mysterious and infamous assassin known, and feared, in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead.
But when, during an assignment from her shadowy mentor and handler Finn (Sam Worthington), Zee refuses to kill a blinded young woman, Jenn (Diana Silvers), in a Paris nightclub, the decision will disintegrate Zee’s alliances, attract the attention of a savvy police investigator Sy (Omar Sy), and plunge her into a sinister criminal conspiracy that will set her on a collision course with her own past, according to the film’s synopsis.
The cast also includes celebrated French actors Eric Cantona (The Fragile Colossus, Elizabeth) as Gobert, Tchéky Karyo (Le Femme Nikita, GoldenEye) as Tessier, and Grégory Montel (Call My Agent!, Transatlantic) as Jax.
The Killer is scripted by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River), and is produced by Oscar winner Charles Roven (Oppenheimer, American Hustle) and Alex Gartner (Uncharted, Warcraft) for Atlas Entertainment, and by John Woo and Lori Tilkin deFelice (Silent Night) for Better Tomorrow Films. The film’s executive producers are Terence Chang and Robin Fisichella.
IGN was able to briefly chat with Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy about their roles in The Killer and working with legendary filmmaker John Woo. (This interview has been edited for clarity.)
IGN: Tell us about your characters and what their dilemmas are in The Killer.
Nathalie Emmanuel: Zee has been living a life of solitude if you will, and she has maybe one or two friends, if you can even call them that, because she's a contract killer. That's her whole life, and she's very, very good at it. And she has a very specific code in how she likes to do things. And when she's told who and when to kill somebody, she does it in her own specific way. And her dilemma in this movie is that she's being asked to kill somebody who she doesn't believe deserves it. And for some reason she can't believe that they deserve to be killed …
(Sy) starts following her too, and he's kind of trying to prove that she's this kind of infamous assassin, it's almost like an urban myth, and he's almost chasing her, but then it becomes very clear that they have to work to together at some point. And they realize as they meet each other they're not that different. You know the saying like recognizes like. And that's very true for Sy and Zee when they meet. And they both have a code, they both have, I guess, an integrity, but they sort of work on opposite sides of the law.
Omar Sy: I like Sy because he’s a loyal cop playing by his own rules to make real justice and really do it with all his heart. It’s more about instinct and feelings, you know? He’s the good guy, but sometimes he can cross the line to do what is best. That was very interesting for me.
Nathalie Emmanuel being the killer, it’s something exceptional. She’s perfect. She’s a wonderful actress, a wonderful human being. She’s very serious, and she has a way to see the scene and add small things that I like. We had a good connection.
IGN: How familiar were you with the original 1989 film before signing on for this project?
Emmanuel: I love the original movie. I've seen it more than a couple of times. (John Woo) was an innovator of action, in my opinion. And just really cared about not just the action, and the sort of excitement and the spectacle of the action, but really cares about the characters and their emotional dilemma as you put it. And so it's an excellent movie. I've seen a lot of John's movies. I'm a massive fan of Face/Off. I think it's one of my favorites of his, and Mission: Impossible 2 is obviously fantastic.
Sy: I was a huge fan of John Woo movies, especially The Killer. It’s a classic for me and my friends, and Face/Off. John Woo changed everything with the action movie, all the slow motion, all those new ways to picture the action. But also, if you look closely with his movies, he’s a romantic guy. There are a lot small looks, chemistry between actors. It’s a lot about love, friendship, loyalty.
IGN: How does John Woo differ from the other directors you’ve worked with?
Sy: It was tough. We had to be prepared because we had a lot to do – the action, the fighting, the violence – but we learned very fast that things can change on the day. So, it’s good to learn the action choreography while also having an open mind to be able to act, to be able to adjust all the time.
Emmanuel: I think of John as a director of action. It's like he treats it like dance. He treats it like choreography. And I feel like as a director, I find his style of shooting to be quite romantic. It's almost like we're waltzing, it's very beautiful and has a lot of movement, but he really likes to get in close and then do these very beautiful vignettes and it all just feels very romantic. And I think of him as a romantic as a director, how he uses the camera. That's quite unique compared to other movies I've done.
And he also just gave me a lot of freedom to perform. And obviously the action is one thing, but just as the character, he really, really gave me so much trust, so much freedom in a way that I hadn't experienced before. And obviously you can get a varying degree of freedom with the director. Some are very, very particular and know exactly how they want you to do it and when they've got it. And then there's others that are sort of a bit more like, “Yeah, try that.” And then they might give you some notes, and then it's more of a back and forth, and it's very collaborative.
John was very like, "Are you happy?" And I was kind of like, "Ah, I don't know, am I?" And it was the first time I'd been given that level of freedom, which was kind of intimidating, but wonderful. It was kind of wonderful. I hadn't experienced that before to that degree. And I really appreciated that he trusted me like that. And this is John Woo. This is somebody whose movies I've admired. And to have someone just be like, "Oh yeah, do whatever you want and I will capture it." In a way just felt really a very special and privileged experience.
The Killer debuts exclusively on Peacock on August 23.
