Keanu Reeves' China-Set Racing Film RALLY CAR Finds a Director

We've known for a few months now that Keanu Reeves is all set to star in a new movie called Rally Car. The project was initially described as The Cannonball Run set in China, but now Deadline has some more plot details as well as the director who will bring the film to the big screen: The Karate Kid remake helmer Harald Zwart. Here's the synopsis:

Rally Car centers on a hot-shot former champion NASCAR driver (Reeves) who doesn’t want to believe his glory days are behind him. When his professional and personal life begin to spiral out of control, he’s forced to take part in a high-stakes international rally race across the face of China, with a young Chinese girl as his co-driver, in order to prove he’s still the badass racer he thinks he is.

Considering his previous experience, Zwart is obviously familiar with making films set in China (and making China look good on film), so I suppose that made him a good choice in the eyes of the producers. This movie is being made as a Chinese co-production with the U.S., which means it will be able to play in China without counting as part of the limited number of Hollywood films it allows in its borders each year; this is a tremendous advantage for a movie like this, which might not have otherwise "made the cut," and it allows them to reap the benefits of one of the biggest moviegoing audiences outside of the U.S.

As an outsider looking in, I have mixed feelings about movies like this. On one hand, I don't like the idea of having to pander to foreign markets, but on the other, I'm not sure a movie like this could get made otherwise. I can't imagine Zwart or his contemporaries sitting around saying, "I sure hope I can make my next movie in China so I can make that country look amazing on film," so I think it's probably just a matter of saying, "Well, if that's what needs to be done in order to make the movie, let's get it done." This is the part of filmmaking where it becomes blatant that its a business first and art second, and while that's a tough thing to grapple with, it's also, unfortunately, the way it is and probably the way it's going to be for years.