Joel Kinnaman Starring In Dialogue-Free Action Film From Legendary Director
Joel Kinnaman's been tapped to star in an upcoming action movie with one of the best living action movie directors!
This article is more than 2 years old
The bountiful American Film Market, a film industry event held each year in November, during which people sell, finance, or acquire films, just got even better and more prosperous. Potential film buyers are buzzing about Silent Night, the first U.S. action film in almost two decades to be directed by John Woo – the iconic Chinese filmmaker that brought us Mission: Impossible 2. His newest creation, Silent Night, starring Joel Kinnaman, will tell a very loud action tale without a word of dialogue in the film.
According to Deadline, Joel Kinnaman, best known for his performance as Takeshi Kovacs in the first season of Altered Carbon television series, and Rick Flag in the Suicide Squad films, will portray the role of an everyday father heading into the underworld to avenge the death of his young son. John Wick’s Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Christian Mercuri, and Lori Tilkin are producing, while the film is in negotiations to be financed by Capstone, with Capstone’s Ruzanna Kegeyan and Joe Gatta overseeing the project.
Despite being the only actor attached to the project, with castings still underway, Joel Kinnaman already has several action films under his belt. He gained recognition for his roles in Easy Money and Jonah Falk and international fame for his television role as Detective Stephen Holder in AMC’s crime drama The Killing. Kinnaman also played Alex Murphy in the 2014’s RoboCop remake and the aforementioned Rick Flag in Warner Bros’ film adaptations of Suicide Squad comic books. And let’s not forget Run All Night with Liam Neeson.
However, perhaps the most intriguing thing about Silent Night isn’t Joel Kinnaman’s involvement, but John Woo’s return to American cinema. After directing the stylistic Hong Kong action flicks like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and Hard Boiled, Woo came to Hollywood and became a household name in America during the ‘90s, directing action gems such as Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible 2. However, following the lackluster performance of 2003’s Paycheck, Woo returned to the Chinese film market with a mixture of action and war movies, like Red Cliff: Part I and Part II, Reign of Assassins, The Crossing and its sequel, and 2017’s Manhunt.
Action films like the one Joel Kinnaman’s set to star in were always a part of American pop culture, and though the genre itself originated sometime between 1900 and 1920, it really became popular by Hollywood’s release of big-budget action blockbusters in the ‘80s. Films like Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Terminator, Sylvester Stallone’s First Blood, and Bruce Willis’ Die Hard all became successful cinematic franchises with multiple releases over the last four decades.
But America wasn’t the only place action movies thrived in the ‘80s. In Woo’s homeland, China, Jackie Chan developed his own distinct style of action movies, primarily based on martial arts. These films further fueled Hollywood’s martial arts-based action movie craze that began with a series of Bruce Lee films from the ‘70s. Nowadays, films like John Wick and Nobody serve as finer examples of the action genre and considering Woo’s unique talent for visual storytelling, seeing a modern revenge-style action film with Joel Kinnaman, but without a word of dialogue definitely sounds compelling.
