18 months ago Wu-Tang’s RZA announced he was being mentored by Quentin Tarantino into the world of film directing. With this, he planned to execute his own film and for a disciple of all things Kung Fu, to see the visual side of what RZA has given us in audio arrive in moving, colour film is something this writer is itching to see. The Man With The Iron Fists has reached post-production (due August, 2012) and is set to be somewhat of a Shaw Brothers’ classic meets a Sergio Leone spaghetti western and promises to be an R-rated extravaganza of Tiger-Style in an all-out blood bath fit for a Tarantino thriller.

The RZA, GZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard started this Wu-Tang brand and 20 years later the sounds of this Shaolin-Staten Island outfit have permeated nicely into the top cult-classic film settings. From fashion to finance, the Wu Conglomerate’s Abbott and principle producer, RZA has redirected his energy onto the big screen. He has been a student of the film industry from all corners. In 1999 he composed the film score on Ghost Dog and the soundtracks for Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Blade: Trinity. As an actor RZA has had memorable parts in Funny People, Repo Men, American Gangster and as the Apocalypse Samurai on TV’s Californication and will play the Blind Master (Kung-Fu trainer of Snake Eyes) on the new GI Joe.

RZA will play the title character in the original story of a lone blacksmith protecting his village from ensuing attacks across feudal China. The film holds no correlation to Marvel's The Iron Fist comic book and is a Kung Fu re-adaptation in which Universal Pictures gave $22 Million to shoot entirely in Shanghai, China. RZA has teamed with Hostel director Eli Roth to direct the feature which stars Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Pam Grier, RZA himself. Centering it around a grindhouse genre in which the Wu-Tang Clan have adhered to as a main element to their hip hop performances, the shift to films has been an organic move for the producer/artist who has spent his career studying and embracing the Shaolin culture and Kung-Fu fantasy and dramatised the Clan’s music and identity off the martial art’s philosophy and teachings and subsequent film genre as distinguished in samples through every RZA beat.

Now script writing for the first time (aside from Bobby Digital shorts) on his own feature film, during an interview on the making of Iron Fists RZA spoke on the parallels of filmmaking and producing his music.

“I always envision when I make records as mini movies. You listen to Cuban Link, 36 Chambers, Liquid Swords - those are my movies, but they're audio. Now I'm gonna get a chance to direct a real movie for the cinema. I'm looking forward to bringing the audience a unique movie experience, in terms of building up the anticipation and the adrenalin through the visual effect that I will develop over time. We'll see when the film comes out.”