Rza Gets The Green Light From Tarantino, Set to Make Directorial Debut

After making his mark in the music industry, Rza is ready to put Hollywood in a choke hold. XXLmag.com caught up with the rap renaissance man to find out about his directorial debut, The Man With The Iron Fist and how he sought Quentin Tarantino's blessing before jumping behind the camera.

Rza, who has already put in work as a film composer, by scoring several cult classics - Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai and Kill Bill – and actor - American Gangster –is now ready to direct his own film. But first he had to get approval from his friend, director extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino.

“He been my mentor for the last 6 years,” Rza told XXL. “[Let’s start from the beginning] the way this film came about, I wrote it and my buddy Eli Roth had got a chance to read it…he heard me talk about it first and he had got a big movie deal at the studio."

"[So] he was like ‘Rza I wanna make your movie,’" he continued. "I sent the script over and he when he read it he was like ‘Yo, I definitely want to make this movie. But we gotta go back to the teacher to see if the teacher thinks you’re ready to make it.’ So basically before I could go tell Eli yes I had to go back to Quentin Tarantino and sit down like, ‘Look, do you think I’m ready to do my first film or do I need to wait another year or two.’ And he said ‘I think you’re ready yo.’ And so I was like ‘thank you master (laughs)’ I’m out there in the world ready to show my talent now.”

With Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) on board to produce the flick, and Tarantino’s co-sign, Rza is completely confident in his endeavor.

“This is something I been working on for years,” he shared. “As far as developing it and I think this year we’ll go with it, 2009. I pick up that camera and be my first full feature length directorial debut… Right now I think we have a movie house behind us. I don’t wanna reveal too much on, but I just wanna say ‘Yo, it’s gonna be the shit of all shits.”

Without giving too much away, Rza briefly explained the world in which the movie will take place. “It’s set in a world of its own. It’s set in a place called Jungle Village. And it’s called that because everybody in the village takes on the name of an animal. It’s a tough place to live, baby, trust me.” –Jesse Gissen with additional reporting from Anslem Samuel

Stay tuned for XXLmag.com’s feature story with the Rza coming soon.