John Woo on his return to American cinema, new project on Columbia University donor Dean Lung and remake of “The Killer”
Talk to Deadline of the Fantasia Film Festival (Montreal, July 14-August 3), where he is honored with a lifetime achievement award, Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo has revealed details of his recent return to American cinema – feature films silent night and Peacockthe reboot of his iconic 1989 action thriller The killer — as well as an upcoming passion project about the man who helped found Columbia University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Woo wrapped silent nightproduced by thunder road and corner stone Studios, Mexico in May. The film stars Joel Kinnaman as a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was killed in the crossfire of gang violence. Kid Cudi, Harold Torres and Catalina Sandino Moreno also star. NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock recently announced Woo’s English-language remake of The killer as part of its first slate of original films.
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Fantasia Screens Woo’s 1992 Classic hard boiledone of the films that helped propel Hong Kong action cinema into the international stratosphere, as well as Face/Off, with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, one of the many films he made in Hollywood after making the transition in the mid-1990s (with hard target, broken arrow and Mission: Impossible 2). He returned to Asia in the mid-2000s, when the fledgling mainland Chinese film industry was beginning to take off, where he directed two-part historical epics. red cliff and The passageas well as a detective thriller in Japan Manhuntwhich premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.
Q: You seemed to have a lot of projects in development in Asia a few years ago. Why decide to return to the United States to make a film?
JW: There were a few things I wanted to do in China, but it was hard to get funding and I couldn’t find anything else I wanted to do. When I got the script for silent night from Thunder Road, I thought it was very unique and just loved it. What appealed to me was that the script has no dialogue – the whole movie is completely visual, you use visual images, sound and music to tell the story – so for me it is something quite new. If I had stayed in China, I’d probably still be doing the same old stuff, another war movie or an action movie, so even though this movie has a low budget and a tight schedule, it was fine with me. I also had the opportunity to work with a wonderful actor in Joel Kinnaman.
Q: What stage are you at with The Killer remake?
JW: We first tried to hire another director to shoot it, but we couldn’t find anyone, so I took the job. Maybe we shouldn’t call it The killerbecause we are doing a very different version, as the main character [an assassin played by Chow Yun-fat in the original] will be played by a woman. We’re casting now. We were talking to Lupita Nyong’o but she had to come by so we’re looking for someone else. The story looks like The killerbut we can say that it is more a story of friendship than a love story.
Q: What was the project that you found difficult in China?
JW: One topic was about the Flying Tigers. [a U.S. volunteer group working with the China Air Force in the Second World War], a very big Hollywood-style big-budget action movie. But it was a complicated film, we had to build old Flying Tiger planes and use a lot of VFX, so it was difficult to get financing. He would have had a budget equal to that of Michael Bay Pearl Harbor.
Q: Do you keep in touch with the Hong Kong film industry? What do you think of the current state of Hong Kong cinema?
JW: I haven’t lived in Hong Kong for a few years because I live in LA, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. [the Hong Kong and Chinese film industries]. I think they need to make some changes, especially in Hong Kong, because it’s getting creatively limited. We need to come up with more new stories because we have too many gangster movies and some smaller lifestyle dramas so we should think about what changes we can make because otherwise the market will get smaller and smaller. Then, of course, the big problem is that they need more money – more investment in Hong Kong cinema, including investment from mainland China.
Q: After such a long break from working in North America, how was filming in the US and Mexico?
JW: The people are still the same, I still get the same respect and the whole team has worked so well together. I would like to be able to make all my films in different countries. I’m on a mission to learn about new people and learn about other cultures, and also to make a movie in Hollywood that feels like a bridge; bring the culture of China and the culture of the West and try to mix them.
There are a few stories I’m working on. One is based on a true story about a Chinese man, Dean Lung, who worked as a servant in New York in the 1870s, and his relationship with his master. He donated all of his life savings to Columbia University so they could set up a Chinese language and culture course. Then he convinced his master to donate as well. They still have his photo displayed at Columbia and the course still exists. Hopefully stories like this can increase understanding on both sides. We have the financing, an American-Chinese businessman is investing and has hired a screenwriter for the film.
Q: How do you find the audience for Fantasia?
JW: It’s my first time in Montreal and the fans support me a lot. I just learned that this festival started by showing some of my films from Hong Kong, then they got a lot of support and started developing the festival, so I’m proud to be part of their family. But there are a lot of other great Hong Kong movies and hopefully those can start showing up around the world as well.
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