News this bizarre has got to be true, doesn’t it? Movieline is reporting this morning that the founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, the RZA, will be directing a kung fu film entitled The Man with the Iron Fist. This news may not seem far fecthed(yet) for various reasons. The RZA is as well-known for his love of the martial arts as he is for his music; the Wu-Tang Clan is named after the film Shaolin and Wu-Tang and many kung fu films are referenced in his musical works. Additionally, the RZA has produced soundtracks for a few modern kung fu related films such as Kill Bill and Blade: Trinity. This film, however, will be Robert Diggs’s, aka Bobby Digital, first directorial effort.

The RZA will have some experienced professionals at his disposal to guide him through his directorial debut as Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth are producing the film (the script is also penned by Roth). Tarantino is no stranger to the genre as he directed both Kill Bill films (in which RZA produced the soundtrack), and both his and the RZAs passion for the genre should permeate well to the big screen.

Here’s the curveball folks, the star of The Man with the Iron Fist… none other than Russell Crowe. I find this bizarre for a number of reasons, most obvious being that Russell Crowe will be starring in a kung fu film. Crowe has never really ventured into the territory of being an action star and his method style of acting (which at times has been the butt of a hollywood joke) does not seem to translate well to a movie in the hands of the three men mentioned above. Crowe has worked alongside the RZA before in American Gangster and with RZA co-starring as well as directing, hopefully he can get the performance out of Crowe that he needs. One thing is for certain though…

I have high hopes for this film, it is great to see film makers take on passion projects and be great fans of their subject matter because they usually handle those works with extreme care. If nothing else this movie will be a fun romp through the minds of some pretty quirky individuals, and maybe we’ll even get a cameo from the 7 other members of the clan. What do you think, are you excited to see Russell Crowe take on Kung Fu? Do you think the RZA can handle directing this kind of passion project? Can RZA, Tarantino, and Roth work well enough together to produce a finely polished product?