One of the elite martial artists in the DC universe, Lady Shiva trained Batman, the current Robin, and Black Canary, and she's fought alongside the good guys on a number of occasions. But she's also a professional assassin, and thinks nothing of killing people, which doesn't exactly work for Batman.
Pros: Cool martial arts action, and an opportunity to explore some of Bruce Wayne's training to be Batman before the League of Shadows in Batman Begins.
Cons: A big chunk of Lady Shiva's story as it relates to Gotham comes from characters like Black Canary and Cassandra Cain, who don't exist in the films.
How I'd do it: Start with a flashback to Bruce Wayne after the death of Joe Chill but before the prison where Henri Ducard recruited him for the League of Shadows (he didn't learn to fight six (or seven) guys at once from some self defense class at the Gotham YMCA, right?), and he trains with Shiva. She's trying to teach him killing blows, but he refuses. Normally she'd refuse to train someone like that, but his passion to learn wins her over. Then we cut to the present day, and she's been hired by associates of Lau (the money launderer from The Dark Knight) to take out Batman. Lots of fighting, she probably figures out who he is, and... well Batman wins in the end.
Casting Guesses: I'm not really a martial arts movie fan, so someone will have to help me out here. An actress who can kick ass, look great, play both a 25 year old training Bruce and a 35 year old fighting Batman, and maybe speak English? Though it could work with subtitles too.
Verdict: She could really work. Fits in the world they've created, fills in some backstory that has to exist, nothing to goofy about the character. The role has to be cast well, which is obviously something I'm failing at, but with the right actress Lady Shiva could work well.
4 comments:
Michelle Yeoh looks older and could balance intelligence, sensuality (she was a former Miss Malaysia!) and danger very well.
The ill-fated WB 'Birds of Prey' show went a slightly lower-common denominator route by having Playmate Sung Hi Lee portray the most dangerous martial artist in the DCU.
I was very disappointed Shiva didn't make it into Begins and would be happy to see her in the next one. Especially if they found a way to bring her foil The Question into the equation.
Keep it up!
Sung Hi Lee, really? That's hilarious (and sad). I didn't stick with that show past a couple episodes, cause it was just too awful.
I wasn't even aware of this character but she sounds awesome. I'm not pro-Lady Shiva.
Interesting character choice. I completely agree with Michelle Yeoh, she was the very first person I thought of for casting, especially after seeing a showcase of her fight scenes recently and remembering Crouching Tiger. With a little makeup you could make her appear younger / older depending if they did a flashback or not.
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