Any Hollywood hack can make up a story where Jet Li and Jackie Chan have to fight. It takes someone well versed in martial arts to ground it in the real philosophies of tradition. John Fusco, who looks tougher than any other screenwriter you'll meet, is a practicing martial artist, so he lent his knowledge to The Forbidden Kingdom.
Scribe John Fusco Talks The Forbidden Kingdom
"I studied the Shaolin styles and have been into martial arts since I was [little]," said Fusco. "I wrote in a lot of the action like I write action in any screenplay, for metrical effect and for pacing, and had a lot of fun with writing the different styles. Of course, then we had the master. I'm just a student. It was a jumping off point but there was a lot of interplay, collaboration, all so exciting. [Director] Rob [Minkoff] and I would go down to the training center with Woo Ping and just watch what he would do with these pieces. We would all collaborate on it and then of course everything that would happen once it was on its feet, all the invention was just incredible. Talk about a fantasy to watch."
To Fusco, adding martial arts philosophy elevates The Forbidden Kingdom above most modern fight films. "It's the way I learned from my sifu and I believe that a lot of this philosophy is missing in martial arts today. Martial arts schools used to be a very positive experience and about character building and discipline for young people. Now martial arts has a mixed martial arts connotation. A lot of parents see it as being very violent and don't want their kids involved anymore. Really, the philosophy is so good for young people. We're hoping that this film can energize that again and bring that back into martial arts for more people."
To keep the film relatable to the young kids he hopes to inspire, Fusco added the element of a modern day teenager traveling back in time. "It all started as a bedtime story that I made up for my 11-year-old son, who started to show an interest in martial arts which excited me. I wanted to introduce him to the legends and lore and the classics behind martial arts literature and cinema. I tried reading Journey to the West to him and it was a little over his head at 11 years old. So I started making up a time travel journey into the mythic China of Kung Fu legend and lore that he could relate to. It just grew night after night and introducing all these elements and then grew into a screenplay."
The film gives many different styles their due. "When Jason (Michael Angarano) travels back into this alternate universe, it's sort of Oz is this Wuxia world where people fly and their martial arts are elevated to that level. All the classic novels have those elements. So Woo-ping wanted to embrace that and have three levels of the supernatural in Collin [Chou]'s character, the more classical Shaolin styles and then the straightforward street style."
The Forbidden Kingdom opens to theatres on April 18th.
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