Confirmed: Yimou is Remaking Coen’s Blood Simple

While the economy cancelled larger, more ambitious projects, if you ask me the project Zhang Yimou‘s next might be ambitiously on par with the likes of Hero and House of Flying Daggers. It was reported back in March (see article) that a director who has taken on almost all genres except comedy was looking to add just that to his filmography, and then MonkeyPeaches.com reported that Yimou had secured the remake rights to the Coen’s Bros. classic Blood Simple. Today, we get confirmation that the production that was in pre-production is indeed the 1984 American indie. I’m not sure about you kids, but I’m psyched for this remake and would be curious to know how the pick up of the rights occurred? Hopefully, someone during the A Serious Man junkets can ask just that question. For the time being: I wonder whether martial arts chops will replace cold steel? Will Yimou look to film noir as a point of reference? Will he appease the censors?

THR reports that “San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi” — which roughly translates as The Stunning Case of the Three Gun Shots contains both thriller and comedy elements and stars Sun Honglei, Xiao Shenyang and actress Yan Ni (who I imagine will play Frances McDormand’s role).