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Pre-Holiday Townhall When Dec 07, 2023, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM PST Where Webinar Details

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Coloring Pages HAVE FUN coloring in Amy, Ali, Fa Sheng and Sasha from The Adept ! We'd love to see your colored pictures, so email photos to us at contact@immortal-studios.com . Also, share on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and tag Immortal Studios for a chance to be featured Click on each picture below to get a full page image to print out and then color in.

The Immortal Library includes the entire Shiao Yi Library. Shiao Yi is one of the foremost authors in the Wuxia genre. His work is recognized by millions for its impact on Chinese culture and has been adapted into film & television. He is the 1st Asian author to have a permanent collection at UCLA. Shiao Yi is one of the foremost authors in the Wuxia genre. His work is recognized by millions for its impact on Chinese culture and has been adapted into film & television. Shiao Yi is the first Asian author to have a permanent collection at UCLA and he has been inducted into the Contemporary Writer's Museum in Beijing. Shiao Yi en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiao _Yi Shiao Yi (simplified Chinese: 萧逸 ; traditional Chinese: 蕭逸 ; pinyin: Xiāo Yì; 4 June 1936 – 19 November 2018) was a Chinese American Wuxia ("martial hero") novelist. and screenwriter who is considered one of the greatest of the genre in the modern era. Shiao Yi was also the founder and first chairman of the Chinese Writers' Association of North America.Shiao Yi's Wuxia novels are known for their emphasis on traditional Chinese culture and ethics, the arechetype of the Xia (hero), understanding of Taoist philosophy, exquisite sensitivity of romance and human emotions as well as a wide variety of writing styles. Having written 55 novels and novellas as well as nearly 1,000 essays in the course of his life, Shiao Yi is one of the most successful and prolific Chinese writers to date. He is considered a new school Wuxia novelist and is also one of the pioneers of the modern xianxia ("immortal heroes") sub-genre. Twenty of his works have been adapted for film and hundreds of hours of television, influencing the East Asian cultural spheres and the Chinese diaspora. Shiao Yi is often mentioned alongside Jin Yong in the phrase "Nan Jin Bei Shiao" (Chinese: 南金北蕭 ; lit.: 'Jin of the south and Shiao of the north'), and as one of the Five Tigers of the Taiwanese Wuxia Scene (Chinese: 台灣武俠界五虎上將 ) together with Gu Long, Wolong Sheng, Sima Ling, and Zhuge Qingyun.

Learn about Peter Shiao, Founder of Immortal Studios, and his vision for the company, the importance of telling inspirational and immersive stories based on Wuxia, and awakening the hero in each of us. Welcome to Immortal: Home of Modern Wuxia Stories for Martial Arts Fantasy Fans What does being a hero mean? PETER SHIAO Founder and CEO Peter is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, leading Immortal Studios in creating a new story universe to awaken the hero within everyone and defining a new business model centered around direct user engagement. Peter has a decades long career leading innovative entertainment and media ventures between the East and West, and has been active in empowering underserved communities. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Shiao In His Own Words Reading Wuxia novels was my favorite past time growing up. In that ancient and mystical world of martial heroes’ journeys, I discovered a reality that inspired and excited me. Through them I discovered the possibility of greatness and freedom born from self-empowerment and connecting to Spirit. Even now, many years later, those feelings are still with me – in fact, they’ve only grown stronger. We are all living during a challenging time, and the enormity of the tasks and difficulties at hand can feel dispiriting and overwhelming. These are also EXACTLY the backdrop for the emergence of heroes. I believe that stories can be an ignition to help us meet the challenges of our lives with courage and grace – and that Wuxia, and its heroes of all sizes, shapes and colors -- are its vanguard. In re-awakening my own hero to create a modern and elevated home for this timeless genre, we hope to awaken – and unleash – yours too. Here, I also dedicate Immortal to the memory of my father, who awakened my hero.

Fa Sheng: Origins, another comic in the Immortal Storyverse, will be coming soon in 2021.

A young Chinese American discovers his genetic affiliation with a secret group charged with protecting the world - and the multinational company that wants him dead. A classic fantasy turned on its head, set in modern day Los Angeles. These are Chronicles of the Immortal Swordsmen. Story Phil Du has always felt a yearning in his heart for something so awe-inspiring and indescribable that it overwhelms him, but his life in the real world has only been filled with struggle, confusion and chaos. Even though he has found solace as an urban parkour and an alter-ego as “Ironpond” in a virtual fantasy game – his visions of infinite freedom, even immortality – have simply been the unreachable dreams of a confused young man. His growing troubles and the appearance of Jade Swallow , an alluring, ever-present figure who appears– even in his virtual world – and always remains just out of his reach, pushes IronPond Du to face his conviction to pursue a hidden Immortal Cave in real life and in game with his esports team, Brickhouse, that promises answers and powers. All of this coincides with the disappearance of LA Chinatown restauranteur Frank Fat along with many other strange, unexplained deaths happening around the city, and Ironpond Du suddenly finds himself in the middle of a brewing civil war between supernatural warriors who have splintered apart -- perhaps as someone who will tip the scales. Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Past Events May 26, 2021, 9:30am-3:30pm PST The Amplifying AAPI Representation in Entertainment & Media Summit 36 Speakers. 7 Sessions. 6 1/2 Hours Live. Presented by: Immortal Studios. Partners: Los Angeles Times, NextShark, CAPE, Wizard World Watch Video of entire Summit on YOUTUBE View Speaker Bios and Summit Schedule Press Release Recap of Event Building an Interconnected Storyverse of AAPI Heroes AAPIs in Hollywood Coming Together Fireside Chat with Chloe Bennet Greenlighting More AAPI Faces, Voices & Stories New Partnerships and Innovations Fireside Chat with Senator Mazie Hirono Covering AAPIs in America: Perspectives from the News Media Fireside Chat with Congress Ted Lieu March 27, 2021 #StopAsianHate: A Conversation with Asian Creatives in Entertainment Webinar hosted by Immortal Studios & Wizard World Our panel of Asian actors and artists had an in-depth and honest conversation about our current environment and how those in the media arts, may affect positive change in the entertainment industry both in front and behind the cameras. Osric Chau - Actor/Producer (Supernatural, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Halo 4) Megan Lee - Actor/Singer (Make It Pop, SWAT, Murmur) Ludi Lin – Actor (Mortal Kombat, Aquaman, Power Rangers) JuJu Chan Szeto - Actor (Wu Assassin, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2) Ron Yuan - Actor/Director (Mulan, Marco Polo, Sons of Anarchy) Peter Shiao – Founder/CEO of Immortal Studios March 19, 2021 Webinar: Cool Kickstarters: Creators & Campaigns in Entertainment (hosted by Immortal Studios & Wizard World ) March 10, 2021 A Discussion on Asian Male Representation in Entertainment We held an in-depth discussion with a panel of leading Asian actors, studio executives & community leaders on Asian Male Representation in Entertainment and Media - the state of what's going on and what's next. Presented by Immortal Studios, NextShark and Asian Hustle Network, the discussion took place on Clubhouse. Ludi Lin – Actor (Liu Kang in upcoming Mortal Kombat 2021, Aquaman, Power Rangers) Kevin Kreider – Actor (Bling Empire - Netflix) Peter Shiao – Founder/CEO of Immortal Studios, a studio dedicated to creating modern stories in the Chinese martial arts fantasy genre known as Wuxia, and bringing Asian faces and culture to the global pop culture stage Benny Luo – Founder/CEO of NextShark, the leading source for Asian American news covering business, culture, entertainment, politics, tech and lifestyle Palash Ahmed – Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Sony Pictures Entertainment Bryan Pham – Founder of Asian Hustle Network (AHN), a community focused on creating a positive and uplifting environment to support Asian entrepreneurs. March 1, 2021 , Monday @ 12:00 PST Webinar: Attend a Virtual Start Party for Immortal Studios (hosted by Right to Start ) February 28, 2021, Sunday @ 11:00am PST Webinar: Representation & Diversity in Pop Culture in 2021 and Beyond (hosted by Immortal Studios & Wizard World ) February 27, 2021, Saturday @ 4:00 PST Webinar: A First Look at Chronicles of the Immortal Swordsmen - The Immortal Storyverse Continues (hosted by Wizard World ) February 20, 2021 Webinar: Awakening Martial Heroes – Champion Martial Artists in Entertainment (hosted by Immortal Studios & Wizard World ) February 18, 2021 Webinar: Wuxia Going Global: A look inside Immortal's effort to reboot a Chinese genre for a new generation (hosted by SupChina ) February 16, 2021 Webinar: Investment Town Hall with Sandy Climan, President of Entertainment Media Ventures & Peter Shiao, CEO/Founder, Immortal Studios. January 23, 2021 Webinar: Wu xia -The Entertainment Genre You Already Love... But Didn't Know (Think Crouching Tiger and The Matrix ) December 26, 2020 Webinar: I mmortal's Wuxia: From Concept to Comic (hosted by Wizard World) December 19, 2020 Webinar: Successful Comic Book Kickstarter Campaigns (hosted by Immortal Studios & Wizard World) 11/05/20 - Media Pre ss Conference for Chinese Media 10/29/20 - Podcast Sinica Talks with Immortal Founder, Peter Shiao 09/08/20 - Webinar Visual Storytelling with Carl Potts (former Marvel Editor-in-Chief and Immortal Advisor) 08/25/20 - Podcast Atomic Zero Talks with Immortal Founder, Peter Shiao 08/16/20 - Webinar Mainframe Comicon - Immortal Q&A

We invite you to learn more about the Immortal team. The team Meet the Immortal Leadership team and our Advisors and Partners . LEADERSHIP TEAM Payhuan Peter Shiao Founder, Creator, CEO Payhuan is our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, leading Immortal Studios in creating a new story universe to awaken the hero within everyone and defining a new business model centered around direct user engagement. Payhuan has a decades long career leading innovative entertainment and media ventures between the East and West, and has been active in empowering underserved communities. Payhuan’s favorite past time as a boy was reading Chinese Wuxia novels (many of them written by his father Shiao Yi who is an accomplished author in the genre), and drawing these martial heroes he read about. Because of these stories, he aspired to be a modern day Xia, the transcendent martial Knight who mastered themselves, and stood for righteousness and justice in a world of great stakes, poetry, romance and consequence. Payhuan pivoted from politics to a new career in media as a means of expressing his mission for social transformation through stories. He feels incredibly blessed to come full circle back to his original love with Immortal. In his own words. Hank Kanalz Head of Publishing Hank Kanalz has over 35 years of experience in the comics and entertainment industry. He’s worked at WarnerMedia and DC for 25 years, most recently as Senior Vice President of Publishing Strategy & Support Services for DC. Hank developed comprehensive content plans for both print and digital publishing across DC’s imprints, and oversaw DC’s talent services, marketing, sales, publicity, and creative services departments. Hank was first approached to join Immortal’s Advisory Board. After immersing himself in the team’s vision and goals, he signed on to lead their publishing efforts, aligning with the mission to unlock the hero inside everyone. Bob Harras Editor-at-Large Bob Harras is the only individual who has been editor-in-chief of both DC and Marvel Comics. At Marvel, Bob spearheaded best-selling titles such as X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, Hulk , and Deadpool , and his writing credits include the Avengers, Namor , and the limited series Nick Fury vs S.H.I.E.L.D. For over a decade at DC he oversaw editorial for all comics including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman . He also headed MAD Magazine , Black Label, and Vertigo publications, as well as spearheading DC's first YA and Middle Grade line of publications. Bob currently resides in New Jersey. Tomas Jegeus Immortal Motion Picture Group Tomas is a film and entertainment executive with experience in marketing, distributing, and producing content worldwide. A native Swede, he has lived and worked in Stockholm, London, and Hong Kong, and is currently based in Los Angeles. As Co-President of Global Marketing and Distribution at 20th Century Fox, he was in charge of the release of Avatar, Titanic, X-Men, Ice Age, Life of Pi , and more; most recently, he served as President of Fox International Productions. He was immediately drawn to Payhuan's vision for Immortal, and believes it will change the world. Tomas' hobby is composing, recording, and producing ambient electronic music, and he has released three albums on Spotify. Skip Kelly Company Storyteller Skip's whole life was transformed through watching Naruto once a week for the entirety of his childhood. It has always been a dream of his to create the next generation's stories that could inspire humanity, so contributing to Immortal Studios is a dream come true. Skip is a master storyteller, media and marketing strategist, and a super-fan of Fa Sheng. Gene Ching Martial Arts Editor & Action Choreographer Gene Ching is a 32nd generation layman disciple of the Shaolin Temple, a certified Provost at Arms in fencing through ROTC and SJSU Human Performance, and is part of the Programs Committee for the Chinese Historical Society of America. He is also the publisher of Kung Fu Tai Chi , the largest newsstand magazine dedicated exclusively to Chinese martial arts, as well as a staff writer for YMAA Publication Center, and a regular contributor to Den of Geek and UNESCO IM. He joined Immortal Studios after meeting Payhuan at the Shaolin Summit, and sees Immortal Studios as the perfect vehicle to help him bring Shaolin to the west. In his spare time, Gene does volunteer work in drug harm prevention, both in crises situations and as a speaker at schools. Kelly Sue Milano VP of Content & Executive Editor Kelly Sue Milano is the co-founder of HexComix, the all-female creative team behind HEX11, the critically acclaimed indie sci-fi/fantasy comic in development for television. Beyond comics, she has crafted spiritually driven narratives as a staff writer for the Kabbalah Centre and mentors emerging writers as a Comic Writing & Scripting Mentor at OTIS College of Art + Design. As VP of Content, Kelly Sue will work closely with writers, artists, and production teams to develop Immortal’s interconnected comics, films, television, and gaming projects. A core focus will be expanding Immortal’s adaptations of the Shiao Yi library, a collection of over 60 legendary wuxia novels that have inspired more than 30 film and TV adaptations worldwide. David Collins VP, Cinematic Storyverse Prior to joining Immortal Studios, David co-created the espionage drama series THE STASI FILES, optioned by Dynamic Television (GINNY & GEORGIA), as well as the sci-fi noir graphic novel CLEAN SLATE, purchased by Lionsgate-Regency. Previously David was head of development for filmmaker Duane Adler (STEP UP) at Connect Entertainment, where he worked on dance films including MAKE YOUR MOVE starring Derek Hough and K-pop superstar BoA. Prior to his time at Connect, David worked as director of development for Platinum Studios (COWBOYS & ALIENS) where he helped acquire, develop and produce a slate of feature films & television series based upon comic book IP, including projects at DreamWorks, Universal, Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures Animation, Fox TV Studios, and the Sy Fy Channel. Splitting his time between Los Angeles and Singapore, he is currently studying Mandarin and learning to cook with a wok. David Collins Company Storyteller Skip's whole life was transformed through watching Naruto once a week for the entirety of his childhood. It has always been a dream of his to create the next generation's stories that could inspire humanity, so contributing to Immortal Studios is a dream come true. Skip is a master storyteller, media and marketing strategist, and a super-fan of Fa Sheng. Bella Ortiz Creative Producer and Social Media Strategist Bella expands the company’s digital presence and fosters community engagement through social initiatives and content-driven outreach. Driven by a passion for amplifying diverse voices, they create opportunities for underrepresented creators to share their stories, ensuring new generations feel seen and empowered.A graduate of Otis College of Art and Design in product design, Bella specialized in board game creation and the intersection of storytelling and play, as well as developing products for neurodivergent students. Their journey into comics began in a class on comic book heroes taught by Kelly Sue Milano—now Immortal Studios’ VP of Content and Executive Editor. Inspired by the power of storytelling, Bella interned with the HEX 11 team, which eventually led them into the Immortal Studios universe. Advisors Joshua Malone Director of Operations Josh's gaming experience began at the age of 3 when he first held a controller, sparking a deep passion for virtual world spelunking. His love for games and search for meaning would eventually take on a deeper dimension as a lead editor at Atlus/SEGA. There, he blended his love for myths and mysticism in Shin Megami Tensei and Persona , while exploring heroism and redemption in Yakuza/Like a Dragon and Judgment . His path to infuse true spirit into storytelling then led him to Immortal Studios, where he now serves as Director of Operations, helping to build a transformative, transmedia powerhouse dedicated to Awakening the Hero in us all. Joshua Malone Director of Operations ADVISORY BOARD Immortal is proud to have an amazing group of advisors and appreciative of their expertise and support. Sam Ades - Award-winning digital strategist and brand building executive with experience at Warner Bros. and DC Comics. Adam Breivis - Digital Producer for Disney and NBC. Transmedia marketer. ARG and mobile game content developer. Arthur Chan - Award winning brand builder and marketer - co-founder of FC&A, clients include all major Hollywood studios and indies. Benjamin Chang - Serial entrepreneur, technologist, CEO of Skale Education. Bernard Chang - Leading Marvel & DC artist and former Disney Imagineer. Sandy Climan – President of Entertainment Media Ventures, founding Head of CAA’s corporate representation practice. Lindsay Conner - Attorney and chair of the entertainment practice at Manatt, Phelps and Philipps. Mike Corrigan - Corporate strategist, former head of entertainment and media at Pricewaterhouse and CFO of MGM Pictures. Dan Dingh – Co-Founder and CEO of TSM. Andre Fonseca - Digital marketer/co-founder of FC&A. As former VP, Digital for Disney oversaw major Disney titles including Marvel and Pixar. Rafe Fogel - Media and content investor. Investor/board members in Legendary Pictures. Village Roadshow. and Studio Canal. Jack Gao - CEO of Smart Cinema, past International CEO of Wanda, Head of News Corp and Microsoft in China. Jeff Gomez – CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment. Gordon Ho - Former Chief Marketing Officer of Princes Cruises and Executive Vice President at Walt Disney Studios. - Matt Leaf – Former Co-Head of Motion Pictures Business Affairs at CAA. Lilly Lee - Master calligrapher, lettering designer, uber connector. Patrick Lee - Founder and former CEO of Rotten Tomatoes. Stu Levy - Founder of TokyoPop, vanguard content company that established the market for Japanese manga in North America. Justin KJ Lin - General manager of Tencent's Fanbyte, Chief Strategy Officer of Firefly Web Games. Benny Luo - Founder/CEO of Next Shark, largest Asian and Asian American news & information portal in market today. Rachel McAllister - Head of MPRM Communications, whose clients have included Disney, Netflix, and Skybound. Andrew Ooi - Global Asian talent manager and producer. CEO of Echelon management. Jack Pan - Leading theatrical and direct to consumer marketing executive at Disney, Summit, STX, and Global Road. Rick Porras - Co-Producer for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy; New media storytelling consultant for Video for Sony. Steven Ray - Music, film, connected technologies executive and executive producer. Charlie Stickney - Independent comics maven, co-publisher of Scout Comics, creator of White Ash. Mike Tankel - Leading marketing and engagement strategist, who works with brands to deliver memorable and sticky brand solutions. Rizwan Virk – Head of MIT Game Lab and Author of the Simulation Hypothesis. Michael Vorhaus - Digital, gaming, and new media expert with 25 years experience building a consulting and research practice at Magid before starting Vorhaus Advisors. Thomas Vu – Head of Franchise Development at Riot Games. Andrew Walters - CSO for RSVD, Former Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at MGM. Bill Wong – Principal, Bill Wong LLC. Former Chief of Staff to California State Legislature and California State Assembly. Brian Wong – Chairman of Radii and former Group VP of Alibaba. Partners PARTNERS Immortal Studios is proud to have strategic partnerships with industry leaders that support our Storyverse and our Mission !

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Into the Badlands (C) January + February 2016 KungFuMagazine.com. Republished by permission. What is Wuxia? Our Favorite Wuxia Movies Anatomy of a Wuxia Novel " Into the Badlands is on Netflix and was an AMC TV series that was deeply rooted in Wuxia storytelling. It was a post-apocalyptic fantasy that mashed up many genres which ran from 2015 to 2019, and opened the door to several other Wuxia-derivative TV shows like YouTube's Cobra Kai , Netflix's Wu Assassins , Cinemax's Warrior , and the upcoming CW reboot of Kung Fu . I participated in two set visits to Into the Badlands for Season 2 and 3 when they were filming near Dublin, Ireland and reported on it extensively. " G - Gene Ching, Immortal Studios' Associate Editor & Action Choreographer If you don’t know the name Daniel Wu by now, he’s the martial artist to watch. Starring in AMC’s new series, Into the Badlands , Wu is an American-born Wushu champion and a founder of collegiate Wushu in the United States. He is also an award-winning Hong Kong leading man with over sixty films to his credit. With Into the Badlands , Wu ventures into something completely original, an unprecedented martial arts-laden television series from the same network that brought critically-acclaimed shows like Mad Men , Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead . “I’m so proud to be amongst those shows on the AMC roster,” says Wu. “They have a lot riding on this show. They’ve decided to go with something totally different, which is not like a formulaic list of things that they’ve gone through. Mad Men and Breaking Bad are two totally different shows and Into the Badlands is a totally ‘other’ different kind of show. They are willing to try and explore something completely different and try something fresh for television. I think that’s amazing. A lot of studios don’t have the balls to do that.” And Now for Something Completely Different “The show is martial arts drama but also has elements of Westerns, as well as steampunk, as well as all these other things mashed together,” explains Wu. Early press releases describe Into the Badlands as being loosely based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West. “I think it’s very, very, very, very loosely based on Journey to the West ,” admits Wu. “We’re not really trying to emulate the story exactly, because the story of Journey to the West on the surface is basically how the Buddhist scriptures got from India to China, how Buddhism arrived in China. But all these sort of little challenges that the Monkey King sees along the way are actually the story of his enlightenment and his development as a character, because in the beginning he is a very rebellious, crazy, out-of-control monkey. And then through his journey with the monk as they go to the west and come back, he becomes an enlightened figure and he changes completely along the way. So we took that idea of a journey of enlightenment, a journey of transformation, for the main character of Badlands, Sunny. There are some tributes, like Sunny’s name is actually Sun Wukong ( 孫悟空 ) the Monkey King’s name. And then M.K. kind of stands for ‘monk’ but it’s not meant to be a literal translation of that story in any way.” The production reunites Wu with his longtime associate, Hong Kong film maverick Stephen Fung. The two co-starred in Wu’s debut film Bishonen (1998) and continued to work together on many projects, such as Fung’s second directorial effort, the hilarious Kung Fu comedy, House of Fury (2005). “As soon as Stacey Sher [Executive Producer for Badlands] approached me to bring me on board, I brought him on board with me. We are already partners in our production company, Diversion Pictures, and we had produced Tai Chi Zero (2012), Control (2013), a couple of other films already. We’ve also worked with each other on Stephen’s directorial films for the past several years, so we’re very close in terms of creative thinking. Stephen became not only an Executive Producer, but he became the Fight Unit Director, and responsible for the whole look of all the martial arts of the show. Working with him, it was great because it was someone I could trust with all the technical side of making the martial arts of it. And having him direct all the action, we definitely got a certain level of quality out of all of it. That was an important thing – we wanted to bring that Hong Kong style to television and the only way to do that is to work with Hong Kong people. So we brought the Hong Kong action team, Master Dee Dee Ku’s action team as well, and then Stephen. Combined together, it was the three of us were responsible for the authenticity of the martial arts.” Dee Dee Ku, also known as Ku Huen Chu (谷軒昭), is a veteran fight choreographer who has worked on both sides of the Pacific to bring Kung Fu action to such notable films as Once Upon a Time in China (1991), Fist of Legend (1994), Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003, 2004), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Expendables 2 (2012) and dozens more. “Dee Dee, I’ve worked with him for a long time. On a couple of Yuen Woo Ping’s projects, he was Yuen Woo Ping’s right hand man. Going all the way back to The Banquet (2006), or the Curse of the Black Scorpion as they called it in the United States, I worked with him on that. I think the most recent was That Demon Within (2014). When we were thinking of choreographers that we could work with on Badlands, Dee Dee was the first one because of his experience with American projects, with the Matrix series, Crouching Tiger and all that stuff. So his English speaking communication was adequate enough to get along with American crews and he’s also experienced with working with American crews and working with unions and that kind of stuff that a lot of Hong Kong people don’t have to deal with. He ended up being one of the greatest parts of the show, I think, because his ability, his working crew, the people he brought on, they’re amazing.” Wu credits Ku as being able to transform the rest of the cast into martial artists. “We had a six-week fight camp and brought them in for intensive training.” Ku managed to get Aramis Knight (who plays M.K.) to do aerial cartwheels in that short period. “Emily Beecham (who plays Widow) had a lot of progress as well in her fight scenes. She has one fight scene that was pretty incredible. It’s mostly her on her own. This is all due to Dee Dee’s really great ability in picking what people are really good at and making that shine. He didn’t try to get her to do stuff that she wasn’t good at, or that she could do very well. He picked out stuff during the training sessions that he saw potential in and worked on moves that she could use.” Unlike the overdone Superhero genre, Into the Badlands made an effort to avoid relying too heavily on computer-generated image special effects. “There’s a little bit, you’ll see as the story develops, there’s a martial arts power that the kid develops. There’s a little bit of CGI there, but not much at all. Most of it is done with in-camera tricks and anything CGI is simple stuff like wiping away wires, things like that. We wanted to keep it as analog as possible so people could enjoy the action for the action’s sake.” The intention was to showcase the martial arts. “In several of our fight scenes, we have long shots, like a 20- or 30-second shot with 10 to 20 moves. We do try to keep it like Hong Kong action. If the performer is able to perform a long shot, we use them as long as we possibly can. If we can get them to do 20 or 30 moves in a row without cutting away, we let that happen. That’s always an amazing thing to see – a straight fight without any cuts in it.” For Wu, he had to dust off his old Wushu skills to make Sunny as authentic as possible, but he is quick to say he didn’t do all of his own stunts. “All the dangerous stuff the studio doesn’t allow me to do, stuff that looks like I might get hurt on, stuff like that. Most of the stuff I’m doing myself.” But the martial stuff was mostly him, especially the sword fighting. “At first, I hadn’t done sword-fighting in a long time so it was like, ‘Aw, this is going to be tough…on me’ – especially double sword because my left hand has always been my weaker point when I did double weapons in the past. So in the six-week fight camp I just focused on working on double weapon fighting the whole time. I actually got pretty good at it and got my old skills back. I ended up actually having more fun with that than with the fist and kick stuff.” What’s more, Wu was able to design his own swords. He got to work with Weta Workshops in New Zealand, the preeminent weapon designers for film today that came to prominence with the Lord of the Rings films. “There was a lot of thought about sword design. I really got excited about that because we wanted to make a sword that you could not necessarily pick out culturally. So it’s not really a traditional katana. It looks like double katanas. They’re single edged like the katana but they’re straight like the jian. But they actually work like a dao. But they look like katanas. They’re lighter like katanas. We actually gone through several renditions. This had been a dream of mine having done martial arts my whole life, being able to design your own sword based on experiences you had in the past, right?” Keeping that high production value of the fights is more difficult than it sounds. Television works much faster than film. “One thing we realized, why no one has done this before, it’s extremely difficult in terms of just scheduling. Trying to get all the fights and drama shot in the time we have allotted. It’s an average of 8 to 10 days per episode so we had very little time to do two major fight scenes per block of time. The way we did it is we had a fight unit and a main unit. The main unit is shooting all the drama. The fight unit is only shooting action stuff. And we’re shooting at the same time, so Monday through Friday is the drama unit and then Tuesday through Saturday is the action unit. In a lot of cases, I’d go to the drama unit for a couple hours and then rush over to the fight unit and fight all day long. A lot of times, what they had to do because I can’t be there for the fight, because I’m shooting drama, if they’re shooting say me and Emily fighting, they’ll put in my double while the shooting occurs for her side of the fight. She’s fighting my double not because I can’t fight it. It’s because I can’t be there physically. So she’s fighting with somebody else, and if I can get there in time, I’ll slip in and replace that person. But that’s strictly a time thing. It’s not about skills. It’s about being efficient and shooting as much as possible. “You need time. For example, we have a rain fight scene which you’ve probably seen in the trailer. It’s equivalent of The Grandmaster (2013) rain fight scene. We were going for that level. That Grandmaster rain fight scene took a month to film. We did it in six days. And so we’re doing incredible things that we’re jamming through very short amount of time. First of all, they can only be done with a Hong Kong crew. They can work that fast. And then secondly, the way we’re doing it splitting up the drama unit and the fight unit, splitting up the people like that. Otherwise it would be almost impossible to get it done.” From Wushu Pioneer to Asian American Pioneer With Into the Badlands , Wu is the first Asian male in the lead role of a non-comedic American TV show. Fresh Off the Boat is an ensemble cast and a comedy. John Cho’s failed Selfie and Ken Jeong’s failing Dr. Ken are also both comedies. Even Pat Morita’s short-lived 1976 show Mr. T and Tina (a derivation of the Karate Kid films) and even Sammo Hung’s two-season millennial show Martial Law (a derivation of Rush Hour films) were also comedies. Into the Badlands is all about action and drama, and Wu’s character Sunny even has a non-Asian romantic interest in Dr. Veil (Madeleine Mantock). However, Wu initially balked at taking the lead. “I was brought on board by Stacey Sher to bring authenticity to the martial arts side of the show. And the whole time I was thinking that we should be casting somebody in their late 20s early 30s, so I never really put myself into the equation. And then once the casting process started, which was like a year-and-a-half later after working on the project, we put our feelers out. I think they tested over a 100-something people, and we looked at all the tapes that they liked a lot. And everyone turned to me in the end and said, ‘Okay…can you do it?’ “And my major concern was that the proportion of fights per show is about two per episode – two major fights per episode. And I was thinking, first of all, I haven’t done martial arts action in a long time. I took a few years of time off from doing it. And secondly, I was already 40 at that point. Can I be able to do that for the next 5 or 6 years if the show does well? I’m not sure if I can do that, so let’s cast someone younger, someone who can last that 5 or 6 years. So we sent our feelers out there and they turned back to me because of multiple requirements. The studio definitely wanted the lead to be Asian. They wanted the person to be able to speak perfect English. And they had to know how to act already, to not be a new person, to have martial arts experience, and also have some name. So the number of people you can go to for that is very slim already. In the end, for them the acting was the most important. To me, the martial arts side was really more important, but to them, the acting was much more important. And so we had gone through a lot of martial artists that had no acting experience and they realized that person could not carry a show. And so eventually then, they turned back to me and said, ‘Well, can you do it?’ I’m like, ‘Okay, let me give it a shot.’ So when we were auditioning the kid, I read with the kid and the studio saw that and they said, ‘Daniel, just do it.’” Wu has already amassed a very eclectic filmography, even for an Asian star. He’s done drama, thrillers, rom-coms, quirky roles, and a wide range of diverse characters. “If you live in Asia, you understand that that’s the way things are. To be a successful actor here, you have to be able to do everything. But in the States, it’s not like that. Basically, if you do one thing, you do that your whole career. And so I’m out to show that I can do more than just one genre.” The only typical Asian star thing Wu doesn’t do is sing and dance. “That’s one thing I’ve avoided my whole career, except for when I made that film The Heavenly Kings. That was poking fun at that whole pop idol thing that happens here in Asia where almost every actor does sing and dance.” Wu directed that film and won the 2006 Best New Director at the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards for it. He has also racked up two nominations in both the Hong Kong Film Awards and Taiwan’s coveted Golden Horse Film Awards. In 2001, he won the Golden Horse Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jackie’s New Police Story. However, it’s been hard for Asian male actors to break into Hollywood. Martial artists are the only ones who have really succeeded, but even that has been fraught with challenges and typecasting. Bruce Lee died young. Despite his iconic status today, he didn’t live to see the release of his only Hollywood effort, the now classic Enter the Dragon (1973). Jackie’s Hollywood debut came in 1980 with The Big Brawl (a.k.a. Battle Creek Brawl ). His film career actually started in 1962 as a child actor; he was credited in over two dozen films and uncredited in dozens more. Jet’s Hollywood debut was as a villain in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). He had already been the lead in two dozen films. Donnie Yen had supporting roles in the Highlander and Blade franchises near the flip of the millennium, but he’s still not recognized outside the martial arts film genre. After over five dozen films, Donnie might finally catch Hollywood’s attention next year with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 and Star Wars: Rogue One . Unlike Jackie’s and Jet’s struggle to be taken seriously as dramatic actors, Wu has already played many dramatic roles – with more to come – so he’s not worried about being typecast in Hollywood. “The reason why I haven’t done martial arts films in a while is because I’ve seen – you talk about Jackie and a lot of people who wanted to be taken seriously in drama – and I had already opened the path for myself doing drama, as my first film was a big dramatic challenge. I went that way rather than becoming the action star. Being more versatile. If you can play dramatic roles and also fight, then you have a much broader spectrum of things you can go to versus if you start off just doing action and you’re only perceived as an action star, it’s hard to go back. I ended up doing it that way, being taken more seriously as an actor that can also fight. And also making conscious choices making sure I do dramatic roles versus action ability or action skill, developing a career that way, so I’m not so worried about it. I know I have that talent and that ability behind me, so I can totally turn down roles. I can be stereotyped through Badlands , but I can always turn down the other offers that come after that and look for things that are more dramatically challenging. And that’s why I’m glad that Warcraft is going to come after Badlands because that character is really a dramatic role, a motion-capture role. It’s not an action-based role at all. So it shows more diversity in terms of my ability skills-wise. And then I go on to another movie, Geostorm , which is going to come out after Warcraft , which I finished already. It’s a big Gerard Butler end-of-the-world type of movie. I play another role that is very, very different than the Badlands character. So I’m coming out of the gates consciously choosing a wide range of roles to let people know that I have that ability and I’m not just an action guy.” Wu confidently looks forward to breaking into a brighter Hollywood spotlight. “It’s kind of awesome. I’ve made a couple attempts before in the past to try to come back home and work in the States. And I think at that time, maybe ten years ago, most people in Hollywood were not aware of the Asian market at all in general. In the past few years, you see movies like Transformers 4 make more money in China than it did in the States or anywhere else in the world. Then you have Hollywood paying attention and now that’s driven the catalyst of bringing Asian actors to the States. And I started seeing that happening with other actors, and I’m like, ‘Wait, that guy or that girl, she speaks no English and she’s doing American product. Maybe I should give this another chance.’ And being American-born Chinese, I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, I speak English fluently. America is my home. I really should be doing this. I should really be making an effort to come back home and work back home.’ I started seriously doing it maybe two years ago, Warcraft being one of the first projects. I think Badlands is a more amazing project because it kind of highlights everything that I’ve been trained to be good at in Asia, that I’ve spent almost twenty years building a career at. As well as being the lead in the project? That’s amazing too. AMC is willing to put an Asian-American in the lead of a big huge American show. It shows that their mentality shift has changed a lot. We’ve moved a long way since Sixteen Candles (1984) Long Duk Dong, I guess. So I’m proud to be part of that movement in the American media landscape. Let’s see if it works.” The Journey to the West Into the Badlands is a groundbreaking crossover project for AMC, not just for the West but for the East too. “I know it’s definitely being shown in Hong Kong for sure because they’ve already started asking me for interviews. In China, I’m not sure on what television platform but I know that through their internet portals, Walking Dead and all that stuff is all available over internet through subscription services there. It’s definitely one of AMC’s goals is to spread further into the Asian region.” Wu says that they’ve already begun work on Season Two, although AMC hasn’t yet green-lit that at this writing. What’s more, back here in America, AMC has launched Kung Fu Fridays as a warm-up for Into the Badlands . “That was kind of our idea, actually. When we pitched the show, they immediately asked us what would help audiences understand this genre a little better. Well, when I was a kid growing up [in the San Francisco Bay Area], we had Kung Fu Theater , on KTSF, with Tat Mau Wong. Remember that? I grew up watching that and that’s how I got my vocabulary of Kung Fu film. They said, ‘Yeah, we should do something like that.’ So then we suggested a whole bunch of titles for them to acquire and they started playing the Kung Fu Friday thing.” Despite Wu’s extensive dramatic background, ultimately Into the Badlands comes down to the martial arts. He is coming home, home to America and home to the martial arts that he loves. “At the highest level, we are definitely making the show for people who are enthused by this genre of filmmaking. We really hope that we are pleasing those people. We’re really making it for them. A lot of AMC executives had no idea of what martial arts is about so we went and took carte blanche and tried to do what we thought was right and what martial artists will think is cool. We’re trying to please the higher echelon of the audience – the people who know martial arts and have been watching this stuff since they were kids. If we can impress them, that’s our ultimate goal.” By Gene Ching (C) January + February 2016 KungFuMagazine.com. Republished by permission.