‘The Killer’ Trailer John Woo Remade His Own Action Classic

With The Killer, director John Woo joins a very exclusive club: Directors Who Have Directed Remakes of Their Own Work. The new version of The Killer is, according to the press release, a “radical reimagining” of Woo’s own landmark 1989 action film The Killer. And if it seems like it’s beneath a filmmaker of Woo’s stature to remake himself, hey: Alfred Hitchcock did it (with The Man Who Knew Too Much). And if it was good enough for Hitchcock, well, it’s good enough for pretty much anyone.

The original film starred Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee as an assassin and a cop who wind up reluctantly working together after the assassin runs afoul of powerful mob figures. The sequel flips the gender of the key assassin; now it’s Fast & Furious’ Nathalie Emmanuel as the killer, with Omar Sy in the role of the detective.

As for the rest, the trailer confirms it has lots of people dual-wielding pistols while birds fly through the air. In other words, a John Woo movie. Check out the trailer for yourself below:

READ MORE: 20 Movie Remakes That Then Got Their Own Sequels

Here is the new film’s official synopsis:

From the Oscar® winning producer of Oppenheimer, the kinetic action thriller stars Emmy nominee Nathalie Emmanuel (The Fast Saga, Game of Thrones) 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 (Avatar’s Sam Worthington), Zee refuses to kill a blinded young woman (Diana Silvers; Ma, Booksmart) in a Paris nightclub, the decision will disintegrate Zee’s alliances, attract the attention of a savvy police investigator (Golden Globe nominee Omar Sy; Jurassic World franchise, Lupin), and plunge her into a sinister criminal conspiracy that will set her on a collision course with her own past.

The Killer (2024) debuts on Peacock streaming service on August 23.