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John Fusco Enters The Forbidden Kingdom
When John Fusco was working in saw mills and living on the streets of New Orleans, after dropping out of high school at the age of 16, he never would have imagined his future career as a highly successful screenwriter. His latest film, the martial-arts epic The Forbidden Kingdom starring kung fu veterans Jackie Chan and Jet Li, was released on a two-disc special edition DVD and Blu-ray disc on September 9th from Lionsgate. After more than 20 years in the business, Fusco has assembled an impressive list of credits. From the Western re-imagining Young Guns (1988) starring Emilio Estevez and assorted other brat packers, to the Native American reservation murder mystery Thunderheart (1992) starring Val Kilmer, to the rollicking Arabian adventure Hidalgo (2004) starring Viggo Mortensen, Fusco has demonstrated a knack for writing epic, larger-than-life stories with relatable human characters.
MM spoke with Fusco about The Forbidden Kingdom, screenwriting tricks of the trade and how the industry has changed since the beginning of his career.
Kyle Rupprecht (MM): How did you get involved with writing the screenplay for The Forbidden Kingdom?
John Fusco (JF): It was an original screenplay that began as a story I made up for my young son. He was beginning his study of martial arts and I wanted to introduce him to the classical and philosophical roots of kung fu without preaching. To me, it seemed that the best way to get him passionate about the Chinese myth and literature that informs the art was to create an eastern-western adventure fable that I would make up, as I went, night after night.
When I told producer Casey Silver that I was doing this, he encouraged me to turn it into a screenplay.
MM: You have a background in martial arts. How did you draw on this experience to write the script for The Forbidden Kingdom?
JF: I could not have written the script if I didn’t have that background. I even wrote out the fight scenes using practical martial arts applications and Shaolin styles and counter-styles. Of course, the master [choreographer] Woo-Ping Yuen was going to do what he wanted with those scenes, but he tended to anchor those scenes in the fight stuff that I wrote. For instance, Jet and Jackie dueling with Praying Mantis versus Tiger was written into the script.
As far as the martial arts philosophy in the movie, it all comes from my own study. Martial artists who see the movie get it and appreciate it—including some of the highest ranking masters that I know. Some of the film critics called it “fortune cookie philosophy” and assumed it was some screenwriter stretching for Chinese maxims. But all of the philosophy conveyed in the film came directly from Lao Tzu, Cha’n Buddhism or from Jet Li, and it is all relevant to the character’s journey and understanding of martial art.
MM: Many of the films you’ve written are epic adventures. What draws you to this classic genre?
JF: I’ve always been drawn to the relationship between history and legend, and that canvas tends to be a large one.
MM: What films inspired you growing up; which ones made you want to become a screenwriter?
JF: I loved Westerns, kung fu cinema and the Universal horror classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. When I was 10, I would write my own “remakes” of the latter and shoot them in Super 8 with a neighborhood cast and crew. A little later I did the same with Bruce Lee movies. They’re hysterical, but I loved Super 8 and I had my own small editing deck down in the basement.
Growing out of that period, I fell in love with films like Lonely Are the Brave, The Night of the Hunter, On the Waterfront, Ace in the Hole. I dreamed of writing screenplays for a living since I was 10 years old. But the films that inspired me to pursue it in a practical way were Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Bonnie and Clyde and counter-culture classics like that. I would eventually get the chance to study with Waldo Salt who wrote Midnight Cowboy, and he mentored me through my first screenplay Crossroads.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Essay on 10/08/08 at 9:44 am
Thanks a ton for sharing this interview. Much appreciated!
- Comment by Tony on 12/17/08 at 6:33 pm
Mr Fusco used to do what Charlize Theron did in her childhood. Well, almost. She also used to practice her acting with other neighborhood children.
- Comment by riding lawn mower on 12/22/08 at 11:47 am
I loved film forbidden kingdom, it was great fantasy movie
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