Gus Van Sant has revealed that his next film is going to be part martial arts, part superhero and part Stephen Chow, the man behind the amazing Kung-Fu Hustle (Filmstalker review), and with that I'm intrigued.

It appears though that the story won't be about people with amazing powers but more about a group of people standing up for what they believe is right and fighting for it, bringing the extraordinary out from the ordinary.

He revealed the that story is still being written and is not near the filming stage yet but that the story will be about a small area of Hollywood that is besieged by crime and a group of locals get together and decide to clean it up by themselves. Doesn't sound much when you put it like that but add in the references that he gave it and you've got something much more:

"...martial arts...a little bit of a superhero movie and a little bit of Stephen Chow..."

He was speaking at a lunch for the director's new film Promised Land, the film about a company trying to start fracking, the controversial mining process, near a small town and the company people who are sent in to try and win the locals over. Movieline through First Showing have the story.

Gus Van Sant had the idea for the film on Hollywood Boulevard where he saw a very frail woman carrying bags and thought that she could easily get herself into trouble, then he realised that her looks could easily be deceptive and that really she could easily defend herself and then some. That led to the idea for the film and wham, he started writing.

He also revealed that he's been painting various fictional characters on Hollywood Boulevard which were also connected to his idea for the film which he acknowledged would be martial-arts based.

Sounds interesting, especially with Gus Van Sant writing and directing, I wonder how it will turn out and if we're liable to see it come to the fore, right now I think it sounds like a hard sell but then who knows how a Van Sant film will turn out.