The Woo in Swoon
Last year, Terence Chang published a book called My Film Life: Hong Kong, Hollywood and Beijing (this can be found on Google as 我的电影人生：香港、荷李活、北京). As tempting as it would be to talk about working with John Woo on The Killer and Bullet in the Head, you will have to buy the book in order to find out the new nuggets of info that I unearthed. Still, here are some Woo-related things that Terence Chang said that I didn’t cover in my Substack articles…
1990 was the same year when John Woo was invited to make either a film with Phillip Rhee or Brandon Lee: “After Once a Thief was released, I found a Canadian English teacher to tutor him, six days a week, two hours a day, for half a year regardless of rain or shine. During the first two years when we went to the United States, he always had an electronic English dictionary with him. After studying hard, he later had no problem speaking in English on set.”
I’m reminded of a 1992 Hong Kong film called The Powerful Four (not a John Woo film): “In late 1990, after that very brief meeting John Woo and I had at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, the idea of making a movie in Hollywood never left his mind. There are four major agencies in Hollywood: CAA (Creative Artists Agency), ICM (International Creative Management), UTA (United Talent Agency) and WMA (William Morris Agency). In February 1992, I took the unfinished Hard-Boiled to a screening at the American Film Market in Los Angeles. At that time, an agent from CAA came to see the film. After seeing the trailer, he expressed interest in John Woo, but since WMA’s Christopher Godsick had spent all his energy promoting John Woo, I had no choice but to decline CAA.”
That weird lull of inactivity between Hard Target (1993) and Broken Arrow (1996) where John Woo wanted to make another film with Sam Raimi i.e. Shadow War (which never happened): “There were other movies in the middle where John Woo was approached, one was Warner’s Fair Game, in which Sylvester Stallone was chosen as the leading actor; the other was from Sharon Stone who invited us to dinner. John Woo was personally invited to direct the science-fiction film Pin Cushion starring her, but he turned them down. Why? He said because if he accepted it, he would feel sorry for Sam Raimi. When Raimi was producing Hard Target by John Woo, out of respect for him, he never appeared on set once. When Jean-Claude Van Damme was cutting his own version, Raimi also spoke for John Woo in front of Universal, so John Woo felt that Raimi was kind to him.”
1993: “In the 1990s, there were still rare Westerns, and the actors seemed to enjoy participating in them. At this time, Sharon Stone met with me again and wanted John Woo to direct the Western film The Quick and the Dead starring her. In addition to herself, she hired three big-name actors: Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe! But for some reason, John Woo declined, and it turned out that Sam Raimi, who had helped him before, became the director of this film.”
John Woo’s fleeting dalliance with TV started with a Once a Thief remake: “Alliance Media is a Canadian company and can apply for government funding if the series involves enough Canadian staff. For example, each main creator is worth one point, and each leading actor is also worth one point. If you add up to ten points, you will qualify. Therefore, the two screenwriters and the main creators of this drama are all Canadians. Three of the four protagonists are Canadians. At that time, many American TV shows were filmed in Vancouver because the local living standard was lower than that in Los Angeles and the value of the Canadian dollar was about 20% lower than the U.S. dollar. In addition, the Canadian government has a tax rebate policy, and nearly 30% of the money spent in Canada (including the remuneration of Canadian actors and staff) can be refunded, so everyone is flocking to Canada to film dramas. There is no time difference between Vancouver and Los Angeles, so remote control is more convenient for TV stations. Although the first episode fits a two-hour time slot, it is actually only over 90 minutes long. Because the TV station also reserves advertising time, our budget can only allow us to shoot for more than 20 days. The filming period was very special, as at that time many Hong Kong people immigrated to Canada, and there were especially many Chinese in Vancouver. There were many good Chinese restaurants, so you could have a good meal after work.”
The one that got away: “Most of the screen musicals at this time were adapted from Broadway musicals. Andrew Lloyd Webber, an authority on musicals, probably saw John Woo’s visit and knew that he wanted to make a musical, so he invited him to direct his most famous musical - The Phantom of the Opera. The movie version of the show! What a high honor! John Woo had never seen this play, and it was being performed in San Francisco, so his agent at the time, Mike Simpson of WMA, immediately bought a plane ticket to accompany him. When they came back after watching it, I asked How was it? Are you interested? He said that the music needs to be changed, so I won’t say more.”
Like his protagonists, John Woo pines for the past and yearns for a better tomorrow: “At this time, another long-lived musical - Chicago - was also to be adapted into a movie, and the original leading ladies were Goldie Hawn and Madonna. Goldie Hawn also saw John Woo’s interview and invited him to be the director of Chicago. But after hearing the story, John Woo had no reaction. I guess the Broadway musicals at this time were a little different from the musicals of the Gene Kelly era that he imagined, or musicals with dance scenes. I really have a hard time imagining him filming a story about two middle-aged female prisoners.”
