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Photos: James Gandolfini, 1961-2013 
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FX has put in development Downtown Dragons, a martial arts drama written and executive produced by S. Craig Zahler. Set in the underworld of New York’s modern day Chinatown, the story focuses on rival gangsters who must rely upon traditional fighting techniques to maintain their territories after the triad bosses ban all firearms in the area following a bloody shootout. Zahler, repped by UTA, Caliber Media and attorney PJ Shapiro, wrote feature The Brigands Of Rattleborge, which Red Granite and Mythology just picked up out of turnaround from Warner Bros and set Park Chan-wook to direct, as well as The Big Stone Grid, which Michael Mann and Michael DeLuca are developing for Sony. In TV, he has developed series projects for HBO and Starz.
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The show is set in modern day, but apparently this pitch is set in the 80s.
This sounds like a project of extraordinary magnitude.
Their boxing drama, Lights Out, was a ratings flop so they go for another dated idea?
I know Fox/FX have a deal with UFC but no one wants to do a MMA drama?
big week for zahler. first, brigands, and now this. congratulations!
Just to be clear, this project doesn’t seem to have anything to do with MMA. MMA is a sport, Martial Arts are fighting styles and methods. MMA is to Martial Arts what Baseball is to playing catch.
Which white guy are they going to get to play the lead? And which Asian-American woman are they going to get to play the white guy’s love interest? And which Asian-Americans and Asians are they going to get to play the secondary characters who help the white guy on his journey? And which black guy are they going to get to play the police lieutenant whose precinct covers Chinatown and who forges an alliance with our white hero?
that is incredibly funny…
“And which black guy are they going to get to play the police lieutenant whose precinct covers Chinatown and who forges an alliance with our white hero?”
And subsequently dies heroically at the end of season one, thus saving aforementioned white hero, and spurring him on to a Season 2 quest to avenge his token black friend…
In the meantime, hot Asian girlfriend reveals her duplicitous nature as a dragon lady spy with an agenda of her own…likely tied to a traumatic rape/murder of her mother/father as a child.
Put that dragon lady spy on Cinemax late night and I’m sold!
Hey no spoilers!
All of the stars of the show are Asian.
Additionally, a portion of the show is in Chinese (both Cantonese & Mandarin)
Always fun to read the spin put on an unproduced writer’s credits.
Always fun to read snobbery from an assistant.
check your facts. he’s been produced.
Sorry, guess I missed Asylum Blackout like everyone else did. Wonder why it wasn’t mentioned?
You didn’t miss much.
Fx needs to do something… Their slate is godawful — yes, SOA is a show for 13 year Old boys and Justified is a snooze.
I agree about SOA. I’m surprised the show gets critical acclaim considering how ridiculous the plot has been the last couple seasons.
Justified is great fun, though.
This martial arts project sounds terrible and I am surprised that FX is even considering it. I thought they were trying to compete with networks like HBO.
I think FX threw in the towel a while back… what was once edgy has now been reduced to pudgy.
I like FX and on occasion they are ahead of the curve. I also like some good martial arts flicks, but I cant get excited about this. TV just doesn’t have the time and money to choreographic awesome looking fight sequences. Also, this premise sounds ludicrous “triad bosses ban all firearms in the area”. I’m all for the suspension of disbelief, but this is too much.
If they do something very stylized it could work on both sides of the Pacific.
If they try for gritty and realistic it won’t work. Who for a minute would believe the no-guns thing otherwise?