Keanu Reeves’ interest in martial arts and martial arts cinema led him to his directorial debut, 2013’s Man Of Tai Chi. He takes a lead role in the film too, working from a script by Michael G. Cooney, and the story takes inspiration from a friend of Reeves, the stuntman Tiger Chen (who also co-stars in the film, and who Reeves met whilst filming The Matrix movies).

It was a long-in-gestation project this too, with pre-production work beginning in 2008, but filming itself taking some time after that to get going. The hold up was Reeves getting the script to a place he was happy with, and he finally rolled cameras in early 2012.

Reeves eventually shot the bulk of the film in China (it was a Chinese co-production), and it debuted in the summer of 2013. Not that it got a hefty release. Reeves’ love of martial arts certainly shone through the final cut, and the general consensus was that it was a good, assured feature debut, with a proper physicality to it.

The film wasn’t a massive success (it didn’t recoup its $25m production budget on its theatrical run), but neither did it lack impact. Most agreed that it was a solid, welcome start to Reeves’ directorial career. Just one that he hasn’t chosen to follow up on yet…