Geoffrey Rush Explains What Exactly Happened with The Warrior's Way

By now, you've probably been seeing ads for a pretty surreal looking cowboy-samurai movie called The Warrior's Way, starring Geoffrey Rush and Kate Bosworth. If it feels like it came out of nowhere, that's basically because it did. Or, not exactly "nowhere," but rather the year 2007. Movieline recently spoke to Rush about his more celebrated role in The King's Speech -- arriving Friday in limited release -- but his comments on what exactly happened with The Warrior's Way were quite enlightening.

"Visually, it's an extraordinary piece of work," the Oscar-winning Australian actor said. "And we were working within the studio's set, but I'd say 90 percent of the film happens in a permanent sense of sunset. Because of its very conscious Asian aesthetic, it just has a red, twilight sky throughout it all of the time. I think in post-production the financial crises hit, and the budget kind of went a bit wonky because of the amount of CGI that was needed."

And from there, Rush continued, the film landed "on the shelf for a while" -- as in nearly three years.

"We shot it late-2007 into early-2008," he said. "I'm glad it's seeing the light of day because I think Sngmoo Lee, the director-writer, has written a very elegiac kind of piece, even though it has all of the hallmarks of that very elegant, stylized violence that you get in samurai swordplay. I'm glad it's out there because I got to be in a Western and not have to ride a horse, that was a big plus."

For what its worth, Rush didn't sound like a man worried that The Warrior's Way might be his Norbit-esque disgrace at next year's Oscars. But considering that Rush is currently in Australia performing Diary of a Madman, that's also probably all the promotion you will see from him for Lee's film. From the trailer below, meanwhile, Rush has a point about the visuals. Let's all relish the opportunity to watch Geoffrey Rush not have to ride a horse.