Since his acting career has kind of fizzled out over the past few years, it seems like the right time for Keanu Reeves to jump to directing. Remember that at a similar point in his own career, Ben Affleck did the same thing, and that’s been working out well for him so far. As TheWrap has learned, the Matrix actor will get behind the camera for the first time with Man of Tai Chi, which he’s also written and will star in. Financing for the picture is coming together, with that currently being set up with Village Road Show Pictures and China Film Group.

The martial arts film, which will be in both English and Mandarin, has Tiger Chen set to star, and features Reeves as the villain. Not a lot of information has been given out regarding the movie at the moment, but it’s said to feature “some serious fighting scenes.” For a movie that has this title, I would expect no less.

How Reeves will handle directing is something that I have no frame of reference for; he’s worked with a lot of great filmmakers in his time, but he’s also been under the direction of some pretty bad ones, too. The influence of his past experience is something that feels like it could go in a few different directions, but I can’t really pinpoint it down. One thing that I’m pretty confident about, however, is the fight scenes, which his time on The Matrix — coupled with his connections to some great fight choreographers — should help out nicely. If this ends up being a hit, then maybe Keanu can find a new career in filmmaking. As someone who thinks that he has a lot more talent than some others claim, that would make me happy to see.

Would you want to see Keanu Reeves direct? How do you think he’ll handle the job?