Whoa folks, calm cown... Harry here... Yes, Stephen "BLADE" Norrington is going to make a live-action feature film called HAMMER OF GOD. No, it is not based of Arthur C. Clarke's astoundingly great novel that James Cameron was once going to adapt into a great asteroid-hitting-Earth film... till Michael Bay and Mimi Leder both made their respective asteroid flicks, thus killing Cameron's epic flick, which was an adaptation headed into a different direction.
Nope, this HAMMER OF GOD is an original pitch that is DeLuca's first purchase at DREAMWORKS... While it isn't an Arthur C. Clarke adaptation, according to Hollywood Reporter and Zorianna Kit, it is a gigantic epic scale Kung Fu epic taking place in the 1580s, concerning a Jesuit priest traveling with the Portuguese Armada, whilst they war with the Emperor of China and the famed Shaolin temple, where PriestMan undergoes a mystical transformation that has him becoming a famed Shaolin monk forced to kick everybody's ass from the sound of it.
One thing is certain, this is a fantasy, as the key Jesuit Priest to attempt to make a difference in China was Francis Xavier, who was never truly allowed into China. However, at this time period, the Jesuits were just about the smartest and most studied European folks around. They embraced science, histories, cultures and endeavored to convert through Baptism. However, the Jesuit order had only just begun. And the smartest set out to do missionary work to avoid the Inquisition which was sweeping Europe, especially Spain and Portugal.
Meanwhile in China, we had Emperor Wanli, who ruled longer than any other Ming Dynasty Emperor, and was the top man in China at the time. However, having said that, Wanli spent 18 of those years under the influence of 'the black perfume' aka OPIUM. It'll be interesting to see if that or his two wives are shown.
Also in China at this time, Kung Fu was spreading like Pokemon. Non-monks began attending Shaolin Monastaries and studying the Shaolin Kung Fu. Meanwhile this sacred form was expanding in form itself. It went from the Five Form Fists and the 18 exercises that it had been for the previous two centuries, into the Dragon and Mantis styles and a breathtaking 72 different martial arts exercises. With repetition comes innovation they say.
