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John Woo Filmography
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John Woo: United States career history
In 1993, John Woo found himself in a new land with a new culture. He was commissioned by Universal Studios to direct the Jean Claude van Damme film Hard Target. While Woo was used to creative freedom in Hong Kong, he was forced to deal with a compressed production schedule. He also faced studio-imposed restrictions such as how many people could be killed in each scene, how many bullets Van Damme could pump into somebody, how Van Damme could behave and so on. When initial cuts failed to yield an "R" rated film, the studio took the film from Woo's hands and pared it down themselves in order to produce a cut that was "suitable for American audiences".
It would be three long years before Woo made another American directorial attempt. Starring
John Travolta and
Christian Slater, Broken Arrow was a frantic chase-picture with a bigger budget. Unfortunately, Woo once again found himself hampered by studio interference and editors who did not share his sense of aesthetics and filming style. What resulted was a film that, despite modest financial success, lacked Woo's trademark style.
Still smarting from his bitter experiences, Woo cautiously rejected the script for Face/Off several times until it was rewritten to suit him (by shifting the futuristic setting to a modern one). With Paramount Studios offering him significantly more freedom this time around, Woo set out to craft a complex story of two enemies— a law enforcement agent played by
John Travolta and a terrorist played by
Nicolas Cage—who embark on a fantastical surgical procedure that allows them to switch faces. Trapped in each other's identities, they play a cat-and-mouse game that allowed Woo to do what he did best: emotional characterization and elaborate action.
Face/Off opened in 1997 to critical acclaim and performed well at the box office, grossing over $100 million in the United States alone. As a result, John Woo became the first Asian director to hit mainstream, paving the way for other Asian filmmakers to follow in his footsteps.
John Woo has made three additional Hollywood films: ', Windtalkers
and Paycheck
. While Mission: Impossible II was a huge hit in 2000,
Windtalkers and Paycheck have been box office duds that were lambasted by critics. It is unclear whether Woo will be able to bounce back from these disappointments.
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