I wrote two movies this year. One is social. It’s called One Spoon of Chocolate. The tagline is “One spoon of chocolate can change a whole glass of milk.” It’s a racism struggle. It’s a struggle between two guys and they realize their struggle is minute compared to the real struggle. That one I don’t think I’ll make as soon as the one I’ve just finished, which is called Sting of the Scorpion. It’s basically another revisit of The Man With the Iron Fists saga. It’s very different than the first one. The cool thing about writing film and working with Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino is that Quentin is our teacher and Eli is my classmate, but they’ve elevated me. I told Quentin my new story and he loved it.
RZA in a new interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in response to what an inquiry into what’s next for him, in terms of filmmaking.
We already reported on One Spoon Of Chocolate, although he hasn’t shared much about its story, except for what he reveals above, as well as what he’s revealed previously, calling it “a romantic tragedy,” adding that it’s “real provocative,” and “will incorporate consciousness, love and awareness.”
But we have some idea of what it’s about, even though it’s not much.
As for Sting Of The Scorpion, which he seems to suggest is a sequel (or prequel) to his directorial debut, The Man With The Iron Fist – that one is definitely new to us! Although he does describes it as “basically another revisit of The Man With The Iron Fist,” so it may not necessarily be a continuation of the narrative from that film, and might enlist an entirely new set of characters and storyline.
The first film wasn’t exactly a box office smash – it cost about $15 million (not including P&A costs) and it made just over $15 million domestically, and another $4.5 million overseas. So, total box office earnings was under $20 million. It’s a film that I actually thought would do well overseas, but it doesn’t look like the film’s distributor, Universal, really pushed it globally.
So it’s interesting to me that he’d want to revisit that world again. I’d guess that it would be hard to find the money this time around, to get it made, since the first one wasn’t so hot in the marketplace.
RZA went on to say that he wouldn’t be working with Quentin Tarantino on the next one, however, stating:
For this one I don’t think I’ll use him. I’ll call him for a different one. This one I think I got it. Last one I needed him to godfather me. I kind of copied him a little bit, you know what I mean? He’s my teacher – I’m not ashamed of that. But this one here it’s not a copy. It’s like “Here’s what I learned, let me digest it out to the world differently than he would do it.”
Sounds good to me.
Given all the projects he’s been attached to direct since Man With The Iron Fist, assuming he gets the financing he needs for each of them, RZA’s future as a director should be an interesting one.
In addition to the aforementioned One Spoon Of Chocolate and Sting Of The Scorpion, RZA is also attached to helm John Milius’ Genghis Khan biopic, as well as an action thriller titled No Man’s Land, and an adaptation of comic book author Grant Morrison’s latest work, Happy!. He’s also written a treatment for a horror film called Tasmania, which he’s called “a crazy one,” and he has an idea for a comedy called Down To The Last Buck.
Clearly, he’s kept himself busy, writing.
Whether any of these films will see the light of day is anyone’s guess. Financing is always the toughest lap to run, especially where original ideas are concerned.
Good luck to him though!
