“Silent Night” Theatrical Poster
John Woo (Face/Off, Manhunt), the noted Hong Kong filmmaker behind classics such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled, is currently putting finishing touches on Silent Night (read our review, which will be his first Hollywood film since the 2003 Ben Affleck actioner, Paycheck.
The film – starring Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop remake, Suicide Squad) and Kid Cudi (Don’t Look Up) – is described as “a loud action tale, without a word of dialogue”. The gritty revenge tale follows a tormented father (Kinnaman) who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang’s crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, Kinnaman makes vengeance his life’s mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son’s death (via Deadline).
Starring alongside Kinnaman are Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), Harold Torres (Memory), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), Vinny O’Brien (American Crime Story), Yoko Hamamura (Obi-Wan Kenobi), John Pollack (Ingobernable) and Anthony Giulietti (At Midnight).
Silent Night is being produced by Basil Iwanyk (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum), Erica Lee (Sicario), Christian Mercuri (Out of the Furnace) and Lori Tilki (Red Cliff); off a script written by Robert Archer Lynn (Adrenaline, Prisoner).
Lionsgate will be releasing Silent Night on December 1st. Watch some new violent clips, followed by its recent Trailer below:
Sounds interesting. I was looking forward to the Lupita Nyong’o lead Killer remake, but if it’s not happening, I’ll take this.
This is good. This is very good. We’ll never get a proper heroic bloodshed flick from the man again, so an American action movie made in a climate where they’ve finally taken some cues from the masters and learned how to shoot an action scene is a very big deal for this guy.
ahem ahem COF where is the review for One Shot ? come on guys, I know screeners were handed out to critics and review embargo has lifted today, I need to know what SIR Paul Bramhall thought of the film !
I think it finally happened and we’ve been blacklisted from receiving Scott Adkins screeners after only rating ‘‘Seized’ and ‘Legacy of Lies’ as 4/10’s. 🙂
That’s unfortunate but I admire your integrity! It’s a rare thing nowadays. You’re doing readers a favor and I’ve never liked sites that just hype up a mediocre outing just so they’d continue to get first dips to studio stuff. It’s happening too much everywhere.
I hope Woo shakes off that ring rust and gathers a crew who really understands his work. He needs the right stunt people, cinematographer, and writer even in the best circumstances. I’ve come to realize that while Woo is quite a visionary, his best works from the golden age of HK action were only made possible because he was in an industry where death defying stunts, martial arts trained stuntmen, experimental editing, and on the fly creative decision making where anything goes was already the norm in place for him to exploit. Once he was out of that fertile environment, he was only half the filmmaker he could be. At least this time he won’t have English dialogue to get in his way.
I did like Kinnamen in Altered Carbon and recently, The Suicide Squad. Especially the former, where he looked pretty good in the action scenes. It should be a good pairing, as Woo probably watched some of that and thought how it borrows a lot of his own iconography:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-X7DPAPmzQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-909qc-9rY
Im very intrigued by this project. One had to wonder if it’ll be traditional Woo, or if he’ll try his own spin on the tactical approach of the John Wick and company films.
I also wonder if the second unit will have more of a hand in the action. He’s been away from Hollywood for so long, but I hope that doesn’t keep him from having creative control.
I’m guessing they allowed him to shoot & edit his way more than he’s been allowed to on past Hollywood projects because the producers know how successful the John Wick movies were (I don’t know how much Chad Stahelski would cite John Woo as an influence, but they do seem to share an affection for over the top gun battles, at least). It kind of looks to me like Mr. Woo saw the John Wick movies & said to himself, “Wait a minute! That’s MY style!!”.
Woo was influenced by spaghetti westerns and Sam Peckinpah films.
Everybody is influenced by things that came before.
I’ll take the John Wick films any day over Woo’s cheesy style of action films. I never liked his films.
I’ll take Woo’s bromance mix of Peckinpah and Chang Cheh over the reptitive headshot headshot roll on the floor headshot action of John Wick anyday (first movie exempted)
I am trying to be respectful but saying you like John Wick films any day over Woo is like the most ignorant comment ever. John Woo is the father of Heroic Bloodshed in the same vein as Dario Argento was over the giallo genre. They might not have started the genre, they sure turned it into the popular sub-genre of action we know today.
What’s “ignorant” about prefering John Wick films over any Woo film? It doesn’t matter what anybody says, movies are always going to be subjective. The person watching gets to decide if something is good or bad. Movies are not objective.
I’ll it say again: I don’t like John Woo and his cheesy style of action. I never liked any of his films. I always found him overrated and over-hyped. That’s what I think and nobody in the world can change my opinion about this.
dude you’re labeling him an ignorant and not even getting it right: Mario Bava is the father of giallo.
It’s been stated by Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves that they were heavily influenced by Hong Kong cinema and doing things the Hong Kong way. Do you think that John Wick would even exist without John Woo? Of course not!
Everybody is influenced by things that came before.
Do you think Woo’s career would have existed if it wasn’t for spaghetti westerns and Sam Peckinpah? Woo was also influenced by Martin Scorsese and Jean-Pierre Melville.
I’ll take the John Wick films over any Hong Kong action film out there. Stahelski have been influenced by those films but he puts his stamp on the action. He has his own action style and that’s what differentiates the Wick films from the rest, IMO.
You like what you like.
I’ve never been a big John Woo fan (hope that’s not considered blasphemy in these parts), but that trailer did make me smile 🙂 John Woo doing his version of a John Wick movie? In which, judging by the trailer, he’s being allowed to shoot & edit the way he wants to? And it’s kind of a Christmas horror (or at least insanely bloody) movie? Yes, I’ll be watching that, &, yes, I expect to enjoy it!
Though I love A Better Tomorrow and The Killer, I’m not the world’s biggest John Woo fan either, but I share the same thoughts: This looks pretty good. I have a feeling it’s going to be really good or really bad. lol But I think he’s on to something with the no-dialogue thing. It might work to his advantage so he can concentrate on what counts.
Now this is a good trailer! This looks like Woo and not the action/stunt unit doing everything for him. I hope that everyone involved made the movie they wanted to make.
It’s easy to forget that the man is not a spring chicken and won’t be around forever, so I hope he has at least a couple of films left in the fuel tank before then. As much as tactical style action can be cool, people can’t forget about the balletic style that came before it.
I watched Silent Night, and it was good. Flawed, but good.
They really wanted this to be different from the John Wick films as Joel Kinnaman doesn’t become an uber badass who plows through everyone. He makes a lot of mistakes and hesitates when he goes into action. Whenever he defeats anyone, it’s not because he’s more skilled than them. He fights out of desperation but without a lot of technique.
Sometimes there’s moments that go too far like when Joel sees a boy who reminds him of his son and hugs him, (reference to Face/Off) but especially in today’s climate, that’s a huge no-no. There’s also an annoying part where a heroin crazed lady shoots at him, and when Joel gets the drop on her, he still hesitates even though at that point in the film, he should have learned his lesson from previous mistakes.
I hope Silent Night gives people a renewed interest in John Woo and this leads to greater things.
It opened to a poor $3 million. Thats one of the worst openings of the year for a movie playing in nearly 2000 thearers.
Silent Night is a flop. Nobody cares about John Woo.
You sound like thos crazy Brie Larson antis that wanked one off cos The Marvels flopped
I had no idea you jerk off to John Woo.
And still doesn’t change the fact that Silent Night flopped.
Nobody cares about John Woo.
I prefer knocking one out to Zack Snyders slomo shots of buff men in baby oil. Then John Wick 4 gets me snoring after 3 minutes