John Woo's Video Game Invasion
John Woo was the first Asian filmmaker to helm a big Hollywood production. The director, who was born Wu Yu Sen in China on May 1, 1946, made a name for himself in Hong Kong with a series of successful comedies--The Pilferer's Progress, Last Hurrah for Chivalry and From Rags to Riches--in the late 1970s.
It wasn't until a decade later that Woo emerged as an international sensation. Action movies like A Better Tomorrow and its sequel (1987-88), The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), and Hard-Boiled (1992) showed off Woo's unique vision of action and introduced moviegoers to "bullet ballet"--slow-motion sequences of protagonists firing twin pistols at their foes. Asian audiences flocked to these films, paving the way for the Hollywood film, Hard Target (1993) with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Woo continued with big budget Hollywood films like Broken Arrow (1996) with John Travolta and Christian Slater, Face/Off (1997) with Travolta and Nicolas Cage, M:I-2 (2000) with Tom Cruise, Windtalkers (2002), again with Cage, and Paycheck (2004) with Ben Affleck. Currently, he's in pre-production on The Divide, a 19th-century action film that will star Chow Yun Fat and Nicolas Cage.
But Woo's recently had his eye on another form of entertainment--video games. He?s currently waiting on a script for Spy Hunter to see if he wants to direct it. He's also producing a Metroid feature based on Nintendo's best-selling game franchise and has been rumored to be a potential director for Paramount's Rainbow Six, a movie adaptation of Tom Clancy's video game and book franchise. A busy schedule, to say the least--but the director was kind enough to take some time to talk about his recent obsession with video games.--John Gaudiosi
John Woo: When story and visual style became more important to a game's development, i felt the time was right to look into this as a place to creatively explore.
GS: What role do you play within the company and how hands-on will you be with these original games?
JW: I give my ideas and input all throughout the process, but the game developer?s guidance and game design is the true key to a great game.
GS: Is the plan to bring some of your original game concepts to the big screen?
JW: Definitely. All of the concepts we work on have this goal in mind. We like to see them as a game, a movie and a graphic novel.
GS: Do you play videogames? If so, what are you playing now?
JW: I mainly watch and learn what is good that way. I wish I had more time to play more and get really good.
GS: What are your thoughts on the convergence of games and Hollywood?
JW: These are creative industries, and great ideas can come from anywhere. The people who work in games and Hollywood are both very talented. Put them together and see what amazing things come out.
GS: Do you see other companies like Tiger Hill, which bridges the gap between these two prospering industries, becoming a thing of the future in game development?
JW: I think what will happen will be creative people in each industry expanding their reach into the other areas through their existing companies. Existing companies will evolve rather than new ones being created. We were fortunate with Tiger Hill, but I think we will be the exception.
GS: Just as your movies have influence both films and videogames, as a film maker, how do you see videogames influencing your own work or others work in Hollywood?
JW: The technology allows me to think of new ideas to bring to the filmmaking process.
GS: What intrigued you about Metroid and what's the latest on the development of that movie?
JW: I do not plan on directing Metroid, only producing. It is a great science fiction game franchise, and we are looking forward to making this a big movie. We are very fortunate that there is such an extensive amount of material to draw upon for the film due to their being so many iterations of the game over the years. This type of story has a proven track record of success with film audiences.
