Lucy Liu has commented that she was impressed by her Man with the Iron Fists director RZA.

RZA directed, co-wrote and stars in The Man with the Iron Fists as a man who builds weapons to save his village from a villainous traitor.

Discussing the martial arts film, Liu particularly praised RZA for his dedication to authenticity.

“I loved working with [RZA] because he was incredibly calm as a director. On set you had the ability to see how many inspirations he had with this movie,” Flicks and Bits quotes Liu as saying.

The actress further explained: “For him to go into a movie that was a period piece and that was also shooting in China, it was a really big thing to take on. He could have done it in America and done something that was more current and more modern, but instead he really had this vision of something that he had been thinking about for a very long time.

“Obviously it was very emoted in his music and he carried that vision through. I have to say, most people don’t have the ability to do that: to start at A and end at Z. And he really did that. It was incredibly inspiring working with him.”

Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Jamie Chung and Rick Yune also appear in The Man with the Iron Fists, opening on Friday, November 2 in the US and December 7 in the UK.

It was reported this week that RZA’s next directorial project could be a Genghis Khan biopic.

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Last year, word broke that, after several years of development and a $20 million co-sign from Universal, RZA‘s directorial debut, The Man With The Iron Fist, was officially a go. And then, shortly after, it was announced that RZA’s pal Russell Crowe had joined the cast. The Abbott is mum about how big a role his American Gangster chum Crowe will play, but Crowe’s name is big enough to add some box office credibility. Written by RZA and Eli Roth (writer-director of the Hostel films) the old-school martial arts pic takes place in feudal China, where, today, it’s currently in production.

And now, the full cast is finally confirmed. The most notable additions are Lucy Liu, who will play the role of Madame Blossom, Blaxploitation film queen Pam Grier, former WWE superstar Dave Batista as Brass Body, and Vietnamese MMA champ Cung Le as Bronze Lion. RZA, in addition to writing, directing, and scoring The Man With The Iron Fist, will play “a weapons-making village blacksmith.” Sounds like a fittingly strange cast, and with Roth and Quentin Tarantino helping out as producers, expect some kick-ass things to come.

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