Novice director & rapper RZA debuts 'The Man with the Iron Fists'

IT HAPPENED just like in a kung fu movie: After years of training, the master told the once-arrogant, now-humble student he was ready for his quest.

In this case, the quest was the new martial-arts movie "The Man with the Iron Fists," in theaters Friday. The master was not some long-bearded guru living in isolation due to a long ago grudge. The master was director Quentin Tarantino.

The student? Bobby Diggs, a/k/a RZA, a/k/a Bobby Digital, a/k/a the brains behind the seminal hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan.

Tarantino and RZA (pronounced "Rizza") have worked closely together since 2003, when they teamed up for Tarantino's "Kill Bill" two-parter, featuring a stellar RZA score. The two were spending New Year's 2010 in Mexico together when RZA began talking about a script he was writing with their mutual friend, director and writer Eli Roth.

Tarantino said, "You know, Bobby, I think you're ready. You know what it takes to make a film."

With Tarantino's blessing, "I just went full speed ahead," RZA said in a phone interview with the Daily News.

"The Man with the Iron Fists" is RZA's first theatrical film as a director (he also stars), but the master taught the student well. RZA's already prepping his next two projects.

Earlier this week, the Hollywood Reporter reported that RZA would direct an epic based on the life of Genghis Khan, written by "Apocalypse Now" scribe John Milius, and "No Man's Land," an action thriller.

RZA will always be associated with the Wu-Tang Clan, but he's been creeping onto big screens since 1999, when he scored and appeared in Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai." Since then, "Hey, is that RZA?" has crossed the minds of hip-hop fans watching movies as diverse as "Funny People," "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," "American Gangster" and "The Next Three Days."

(His best film appearance, though, remains when he played himself alongside his cousin GZA and Bill Murray in a segment from Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes.")

It was playing those small parts that introduced him to Russell Crowe, who stars in "The Man with the Iron Fists" as Jack Knife, a rogue British soldier who travels to a town where warring factions are fighting over an ancient treasure. To protect the town, a nameless blacksmith played by RZA must turn himself into a human weapon so he can fight off outside threats.

"I call him 'Big Brother.' He's a unique dude and we have a kindred spirit," RZA said about the notoriously prickly Crowe. "He helps validate the vision."

RZA said putting that vision on-screen was even harder than wrangling the various personalities that made up Wu-Tang. "Directing is much, much harder," RZA said. But the Wu-Tang experience prepared him for helming his own movie, especially when it came to having confidence in his own decision-making, as well as keeping the cast and crew happy.

"Sometimes a rapper may want to make a bar 16 bars, but the song only fits eight bars. So he's got to cut his vision to fit the vision of the whole," he said.

RZA has similarly had to learn to manage his own vision. RZA's first try at cutting "The Man with the Iron Fists" led to a film that was more than three hours long. It's now a taut 96 minutes.

RZA saw that process as par for the course for a new director, a learning experience like everything else. "Basically, you're in love with everything you do, but you can't have a scene where guys are walking through two long tunnels to get to a door that takes five minutes just because you're in China and you love the look of this guy doing it," RZA said.

"It's like that in every movie. When Rocky runs up the steps, they cut one street to the next street to the next street - then he goes up the steps. You don't see his whole jog. You can't do that; nobody's got that much time."

It's easy to hear the passion in RZA's voice when it comes not only to filmmaking and his own experiences but film in general. Fans of Wu-Tang already know that the group's lyrics are full of movie references. Take their landmark debut album, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," a reference to one of the greatest kung fu movies of all time, the Shaw brothers' "The 36 Chambers of Shaolin" (1978). ("Enter the Wu-Tang" celebrates its 20th anniversary next year, and RZA hopes for a reunion of the crew.)

He can rattle off the names of the movies he saw the first three times he went to a theater ("Tom Sawyer," a double feature of "Star Wars" and "The Swarm," and another double feature of "Black Samurai" and "Fury of the Dragon").

To grab his own audience's attention in "Iron Fists," RZA used a mix of practical martial arts and CGI. He estimates 70 percent of the movie was shot on set, and the rest was added special effects. "All of the fighting is practical. People had to get up wires. Stuntmen had to jump through s---," RZA said, chuckling.

It's important to RZA that no fighting was simulated, as a sort of homage to the movies he loved as a kid that have influenced his professional career. "The thing that resonated with me with martial-arts films . . . I think it's a human thing, but brotherhood, loyalty, justice and sacrifice."

Those are the themes that RZA hopes will come across when audiences see "The Man with the Iron Fists." He said the film has an open ending, and he would love to return to the characters. "I definitely see us expanding the world, if we have . . . " RZA stopped midsentence, laughed and continued. "I should say when we have success with the film."