Filmmaker Johhny Wu has made nearly 100 films during his career—mostly action films with a sci-fi or comedy twist. But Wu says his latest release, “Bullets, Brothers and Blood,” debuting this Saturday, March 2, is more story line driven. Well, there’s some action too.

“This one is more story driven, with action complementing it to make it work,” Wu admits. “This is the first time we're using a lot of prop guns, [which] I didn't use a lot in the past.”

Written by Gaines Strouse, directed by Wu, and featuring an all-local cast, “Bullets, Brothers and Blood” is a story of mistaken identity—immersing viewers in a world of crime, brotherhood, and action as an ex-Army Ranger searches for his brother in a lawless town controlled by a brutal crime boss.

One by one, a serial killer takes out the crime boss’ soldiers. The Ranger is mistaken for the killer and must fight off attacks to find his brother and get out alive.

Bullets, Brothers and BloodWu met writer Strouse at a local film festival and Wu learned he was a fan of Wu’s works. Then, about two years ago, Strouse reached out to Wu to direct “Bullets, Brothers and Blood” because it was “right up his ally.” The pair are working on another feature film planned for 2025.

The cast is diverse—made up of men and women, Asian people, Black people, and white people—a deliberate choice on Wu’s part.

“On all my films, we always bring in a diverse group of talented actors,” he explains. “I have always thought diversity is very important and not just all male or all white. It’s one of the things I do, and I think it has a lot to do with my daily event producing work as well—to embrace diversity.”

Wu says he incorporated more stunts in the movie than he ever had before. “There are actors going through windows, actors being shuffled down the stairs, actors breaking the table, and so on,” he explains. “So it's a little bit more interesting and more diverse, stunt-wise.”

Despite the stunts, Wu says no one got hurt during filming. He says he always has a safety director on the set, an EMT, just in case. “There were a lot of bruises,” he admits, “but nobody got [seriously] hurt.”

As for the heavy use of profanity, Wu points to Strouse. “Writer Gaines Strouse has [a lot of profanity in the script] because it shows the real world of the gangster owned small town environment,” explains Wu.

“Bullets, Brothers and Blood” was filmed mostly in Cleveland’s AsiaTown, but also in Oberlin, Akron, and Roaming Shores in Ashtabula County.

Cleveland has a variety of places that we can film anything we want,” says Wu. “There are areas that look like deserts, some places look like high tech, or areas that can be used like small towns and such.”

But some of the other Ohio locations had the look and feel they needed for certain scenes.

Scene from Bullets, Brothers and Blood“Over at Roaming Shores, we wanted a location with a nice river and a nice cabin to be the gangster’s home, and my friend Izzy was gracious enough to let me film at it,” Wu says. “The mayor of Roaming Shores was very nice and had no problem [with us filming] there, so it was great. The same goes with Oberlin and Akron—it’s a particular look we were looking for and we found it.”

Wu says they were remarkably able to shoot the entire film in just 10 days, filming only over the weekends. He says he normally scheduled shooting over two months.

In January 2023, just before shooting was scheduled to begin, Wu was having heart issues, had high blood pressure, and was on medication.

“I told my cast and crew that we're going to try our best to make this movie work,” he recalls. “ I told them, ‘I need everybody to do your best to help me out’ because I was kind of sick. We pulled it through.”

The crew limited the shoots to eight hours or less each day, which Wu says he prefers because he gets cranky after 10 hours even when healthy.

“We just kept it moving forward,” Wu recalls. “Some days, we’d break into two units and if we missed something and needed to reshoot, we would ask the second unit to do it. And surprisingly, after all, we realized we actually did it all in 10 days. This is the shortest [filming time] I’ve ever done.”

Wu says he’s already submitted “Bullets, Brothers and Blood” to the Horror Hotel International Film Festival in June, the Indie Gathering International Film Festival in August, and the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival in September.

“Bullets, Brothers and Blood” debuts Saturday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Atlas Cinemas Lakeshore 7, 22624 Lake Shore Blvd., in Euclid. Tickets are $20 in advance, or $25 at the door. Come before the show for photo opportunities and to mingle with the cast and crew.