Wu Tang rapper’s kung-fu crossover questionable

It’s no secret that when it comes to directing, musicians have an uneasy track record — see… It’s no secret that when it comes to directing, musicians have an uneasy track record — see John and Yoko’s short film, “Fly.” Although the industry has produced more than its fair share of enjoyable actors — David Bowie and Tom Waits are always colorfully off-kilter — it has precious few auteurs to its name.

Thankfully, RZA — rapper Robert Fitzgerald Diggs — has decided to lay that stigma to rest.

For the uninitiated, RZA is a founding member and producer of hardcore hip-hop collective, the Wu-Tang Clan. He’s often credited and praised for pioneering the Clan’s influential sound — bleak, esoteric rhymes overlaying brittle beats. He’s also known for drawing upon not just other styles, but also other mediums for source material. The group’s songs are often interspersed with samples from martial-arts flicks.

Since his meteoric rise to the upper echelons of rap, which includes a flurry of merchandise and collaborations with A-listers like Kanye West, RZA has followed the example of his colleague Ice Cube and dabbled in acting (“Ghost Dog,” “Coffee and Cigarettes”) — often making cameos.

Recently, however, the Brooklyn native transcended occasional stardom to become a full-fledged Hollywood player. In an improbable string of events, the man who once lived in the projects and was accused — and later acquitted of — attempted murder is now slated to direct kung-fu flick “The Man With the Iron Fist” for Universal Pictures. Eli Roth will serve as the producer, co-writer and adviser and — according to IMDb — Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu are the stars.

Predictably, this news engendered a flurry of ironic enthusiasm and more earnest skepticism. After all, RZA has little to no experience in the director’s chair. Or rather, no positive experience, as the rapper/producer has an unreleased film to his name, “Wu-Tang vs. the Golden Phoenix,” whose trailers — a hodgepodge of low-budget karate amidst anonymous forest clearings — recall the inexpert enthusiasm of high school cinema classes. Aside from the normalizing effects of major studio backing, there’s nothing to suggest RZA’s latest effort will be any more enlightened.

Nevertheless, “The Man With the Iron Fist” demands engagement if for no other reason than the fact that it raises a fascinating question: What happens when an artist is so enthusiastic about another art form that he converts to that form? As even a cursory listen to the Clan’s debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), affirms, RZA has a remarkable talent for integrating films into music. Now, he seeks the opposite: channeling his musical sensibilities into his movies.

A fitting, albeit unlikely, parallel to this scenario is the music of director David Lynch (“Eraserhead,” “Mulholland Dr.”). A revered auteur, Lynch, who makes disturbing, sensory films with acclaimed soundtracks, recently released two modern blues singles, “Good Day Today” and “I Know.”

Both pieces begin innocuously enough — the former has a quasi-danceable beat, the latter a simmering chill down vibe — before veering into sinister, distorted vocals and alarming lyrics. In other words, they’re both distinctly “Lynchian,” as they sound like music only the director would make.

Unfortunately, the two singles don’t bode well for future artistic crossovers. Whereas they are not without merit, they seem only a two-dimensional reflection of the director’s cinematic output — they’re creepy, but in a less provoking way. Although Lynch displays an uncanny mastery of sound in films like “Blue Velvet,” he has yet to realize the nuances and possibilities of music not supplemented by images.

This is not to say RZA’s film is destined to be as disappointing as Lynch’s. Although the rapper’s passion for the kung-fu genre doesn’t necessarily foretell a bad movie, it does foretell an uninteresting one. However “The Man With the Iron Fist” turns out — inexpert, disorienting or unexpectedly brilliant — it will allow audiences another glimpse at the great pop culture experiment of the 21st century: the cross-pollination of art.