Keanu Reeves knows his way around a martial arts mat, what with his extensive training for The Matrix and John Wick franchises, and now he’s about to pay tribute to a groundbreaker within the combat sports.
Deadline reports Reeves and Oscar-winning director Fisher Stevens will co-produce a documentary on Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, who is credited with introducing mixed martial arts to the world.
Now 71, Urquidez was a world champion karate and kickboxing legend who transitioned to training actors and coordinating fight scenes for movies.
Incidentally, John Cusack was one of his students, and Urquidez takes him on in a famous scene in the actor’s 1997’s hit Grosse Pointe Blank. But Urquidez’s client list reads like a Hollywood’s who’s who: Everyone from Jackie Chan to the late Patrick Swayze to Michelle Pfeiffer trained with him over his long career.
Emmy-nominated sports documentary editor and filmmaker Jennifer Tiexiera is directing the documentary. She tells the trade, “Benny’s fighting career was born out of his struggles with identity, poverty, and race, but he didn’t let those things define him. The result is a story about how struggle and sacrifice evolved into one about love, spirituality and deeper meaning.”
Keanu recently appeared in and produced another documentary, Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story, which is streaming on Hulu.
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