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In the early 1980s, theJames Bond film serieswas in a period of transition, withaged series star Roger Moore, whose tenure as Bond began with the 1973 installmentLive and Let Dieand ended with the 1985 release ofA View to a Kill, poised to retire as Bond. With the series in a state of upheaval, Hollywood saw an opening with which to create its own successor to Bond.
The first such contender appeared in 1982, with the debut of the NBC television seriesRemington Steele, starring future Bond series star Pierce Brosnan as a former con man and thief who assumes the titular fictional identity to help a female private investigator. The first big-screen attempt arrived in 1985, with the release of the action-adventure filmRemo Williams: The Adventure Begins, which is based onThe Destroyernovel series, featuring the titular character, a New York cop whose death is faked so he can be trained to be an assassin for a secret black-ops United States organization called CURE.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginswas intended by its distributor, Orion Pictures, to establish the film’s titular character, played by Fred Ward, as the American answer to Bond. For this purpose,Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginswas directed by Guy Hamilton, who previously directed four Bond films, beginning with thegreat 1964 installmentGoldfinger, while the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood, who wrote the scripts for the Bond filmsMoonrakerandThe Spy Who Loved Me.
However, despite its promising elements,Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginsbecame a box-office failure, which doomed hopes for the creation of aRemo Williamsfilm series. Nearly 40 years after its initial release,Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginshas, in the course of gaining a strong cult following, become an enduring symbol of tantalizing, yet unfulfilled, potential.
‘Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins’ Is an Adult Version of ‘The Karate Kid’
The central student-teacher relationship inRemo Williams: The Adventure Beginsstrongly resembles that ofDaniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagifrom the 1984 martial arts drama filmThe Karate Kidand its various sequels. The key difference is that the student-teacher relationship inRemo Williams: The Adventure Beginsis primarily geared toward turning the film’s titular character into a one-man killing machine.
Remo Williams: The Adventures Beginsintroduces Fred Ward as Sam Makin, a tough New York cop, andformer Vietnam Veteranwho is involuntarily recruited, through the faking of his death and transference of a new face and identity, into becoming an assassin for the secret United Organization, CURE, which was first established by President Kennedy for the purpose of defending America by any means necessary. Rechristened Remo Williams, Remo is trained to be a killing machine by Chiun, an elderly-seeming and extremely sarcastic Korean martial arts master played by Joel Grey.
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While Mr. Miyagi practices a traditional Okinawa style of Karate, Chiun teaches Remo the fictional Korean martial art of Sinanju, from which Remo learns various amazing skills, including dodging bullets and the ability to run on concrete and water. LikeThe Karate Kid,Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginsis propelled by the excellent on-screen chemistry of its stars, Grey and Ward, whose cross-cultural banter, in which Chiun’sYoda-like knowledgeclashes with his stubbornness, enables audiences to become emotionally invested in Remo’s journey. This relationship provides a solid foundation for future films ifRemo Williams: The Adventure Beginsperformed well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginsis grounded in thecompelling origin storyof the film’s titular character and his fascinating relationship with mentor Chiun. These elements elevate the film and transcend the film’s otherwise routine plot, in which Remo is tasked with neutralizing a corrupt weapons dealer. Despite its fairly bland main villain, the basic ingredients ofRemo Williams: The Adventure Beginsinspire genuine curiosity and optimism regarding potential sequels, which could have taken the central concept in a variety of interesting directions.
Of course, the potentialRemo Williamsfranchise hinged entirely on the first film’s box-office performance, which was entirely underwhelming. In its opening weekend of release,Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginsgrossed just under $3.4 million, debuting in fourth place behind theStephen King werewolf filmSilver Bullet.Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, which had a production cost of $15 million, finished its theatrical run with a lackluster total gross of approximately $14.4 million.
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The most prominent explanation for the film’s box-office failure was that the film’s star, the beloved Fred Ward, lacked the commercial appeal to launch a successful franchise. When Ward, who died at the age of 79 in 2022, was cast as Remo Williams, distributor Orion Pictures was so confident in the film’s success that it signed Ward to play Remo in three films in the planned series.
‘Remo Williams’ Deserves a Feature Reboot or Television Series
In 1988, a one-hourRemo Williamstelevision pilot titledRemo Williams: The Prophecyaired on ABC, with Jeffrey Meek in the title role and Roddy McDowall as Chiun. The 1988 pilot, which didn’t lead to a series, contains footage and music from the 1985 film and takes place one year after the events of the film.In 2014, Sony Pictures announced that Shane Black, a longtime fan ofThe Destroyerbook series, was set to co-write and direct a feature film based on the book series. However, this project has languished over the past decade.
Approximately two years ago, Sony announced that Gordon Smith, a producer and writer best known for his work on the showsBetter Call SaulandBreaking Bad, wasadaptingThe Destroyerbook seriesinto a television series. However, since this announcement, a series has yet to be confirmed.Remo Williams: The Adventure Beginsis streaming for free onTubi.
