The rapper turned actor/director's feature film directorial debut, and one of the projects that made it on my fall 2012 list of films to see, The Man With The Iron Fists, will see a USA theatrical release on November 2.

It stars RZA himself, Russell Crowe, Pam Grier, Lucy Liu and others; Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth served as producers on this $20 million project. 

In feudal China, a blacksmith (played by RZA) who makes weapons for a small village is put in the position where he must defend himself and his fellow villagers.

We've seen the explosive trailer, but I'd say that it's still somewhat of a mystery at this point what the entire film is going to look, sound and feel like, and how all the individual pieces will work together to form some cohesive whole. 

RZA learned from Tarantino, shadowing him on film sets, with Roth assisting in shoring up the script. What could RZA have taken from the other 2 gentlemen and blended into his work, or how much influence they had on RZA's choices, remains to be seen. But I'm definitely curious, and looking forward to eventually finding out.

Ahead of the film's theatrical opening, RZA will release a short animated version of the film on Machinima's YouTube channel, which he's working on with Eric Calderon (writer/producer of Afro Samurai). The short film will be released some time in October, although he doesn't give an exact date.

But whenever it does, we'll know, so look out for it!

Here's RZA talking about the short, as well as a sweepstakes competition you can enter that'll get you to the feature film's NYC premiere.