Donnie Yen, the new Chinese ‘James Bond?’

How’s this for spin? Susanna Tsang, producer for Daniel Lee’s upcoming period action movie 14 BLADES is likening it to a James Bond movie which, by association, would make its star Donnie Yen, something of a Chinese James Bond.

“14 BLADES is really the first James Bond film from China and is based on historical fact,” Tsang said. “Audiences from China and abroad have never seen this type of Chinese movie before.”

THR caught Tsang’s statement while covering Cannes and had the following description of the movie to support a comparison to the famous spy frachise.

The screenplay by Lee and Abe Kwong is set within Jinyiwei, a 14th century intelligence agency that hired street orphans and trained them as assassins who employed an arsenal of blades for torture and assassination. The story involves a licensed killer who has to overthrow a puppetmaster who has usurped the powers of the rightful emperor.

I have to admit that I am intrigued by this premise. But let’s set aside Daniel Lee and the whole period action thing and get back to the idea of Donnie Yen as a James Bond clone. In 1960s, Shaw Brothers produced several James Bond-inspired films, one of them being THE BLACK FALCON starring Paul Chang. Imagine for a moment, Donnie Yen in a slightly cheeky remake of THE BLACK FALCON as a debonair superspy in a slick suit, driving fast cars, taking on international criminal organizations with countless minions, rubbing elbows with some of Asia’s hottest women, and cracking skulls all the while. Imagine KILL ZONE director Wilson Yip or perhaps Johnnie To at the helm. I think Donnie has matured enough as an actor to take on such a role. Heck, if done right it could provide Yen with a new A-list franchise to gracefully transition away from pure kung fu movies while still remaining a bankable action lead.