DIARY OF A DIE HARD FRIENDSHIP: From Gen-Y to Dragon Squad with Q and B.
As I write this, I’m en route back from Tokyo, where I flew to attend the Japanese premiere of Live Free Or Die Hard AKA Die Hard 4.0. I’ve been a fan of the franchise since the first film, which, I just checked, debuted an amazing 20 years ago. The legend lives, and no one dies harder in it than one of its stars, the divine Ms. Maggie Q.
People ask how long Maggie and I have been friends, and I sometimes reply, You mean in this lifetime? It feels like longer. We first met, en passant, when she was still known primarily as Hong Kong’s hottest supermodel, and I was known, primarily, as ‘that white guy working at Media Asia’. We were always friendly, but we didn’t become friends until we worked together on Benny Chan’s Gen-Y Cops. She co-starred in the film, and I was one of the writers. (My partner in script crafting was Felix Chong, who went on to better things with the Infernal Affairs series.) The film itself ended up being the nigh perfect Friday night six-pack and pizza movie, a dizzy mix of guns, gung fu, girls (Maggie and Christy Chung, together for the first time), a rather dazed Paul Rudd (who also went on to better things…) and a really, really big robot. If all that doesn’t entertain you, you’re probably reading the wrong blog.
It may have taken Hollywood a little longer to catch on, but I came away from the Gen-Y experience convinced that the Q had the X factor needed to go global. Friendships born of film-making can be fickle. Sometimes you come off a project knowing you’ve made a new best mate (as I did with the intrinsically loyal and kind Julian Sands), sometimes you spend long months working with someone you never see again (Claire Forlani, where was my wedding invite?), sometimes you finish the
film praying you’ll never meet a certain thespian again… Happily, Maggie and I stayed friends, and even managed to work together a few times more.
When I joined Emperor, Maggie had just finished shooting Manhattan Midnight in New York. This little-seen thriller, co-starring Richard Grieco, was (I’m told) the first HD movie ever shot. I was involved with the marketing of the film, and Emperor’s attempts to sell it internationally. We premiered both Manhattan Midnight and Gen-Y Cops at the Hawaii Film Festival, which was a riot. Born and raised on the islands, Q came back home in style.
One of the big disappointments of my professional life was that I couldn’t work on Maggie’s film Naked Weapon, as I was making The Twins Effect at the same time. Naked Weapon is a Wong Jing-produced chicks’n’kicks flick, directed by Tony Ching Siu-tung, and it fast became a cult fave worldwide. When the film was released in the UK, Maggie and I got to record a raucous commentary track for the DVD, and I produced a Day In The Life Of Q documentary for the bonus features. I’m especially glad we did the latter, as it captures Maggie living life in Hong Kong, before Hollywood beckoned.
When I came on-board to co-produce the action thriller Dragon Squad, I brought in some international elements to try and raise its profile. I negotiated a deal to hire Michael Biehn, one of the favourite performers of director Daniel Lee, to play the main villain. Michael made his name in a string of James Cameron classics, Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and, the film Daniel had noticed him in, The Rock. We persuaded action icon Steven Seagal to executive produce the film. I brought in an international sales company, Arclight, to sell Dragon Squad internationally.
There were some lengthy discussions about casting one of the female cop roles, and I threw Maggie’s name into the mix. Daniel looked at her earlier work, and then came back with a different proposal. I still remember pitching the part to Q. “If it’s some stupid, giggly girly cop,” she said, “you can forget it, Logan.” Actually, it’s a stone cold Vietnamese lady sniper. “Okay,” she retorted, scarcely pausing for breath. “I’m so in.” She did a great job on camera, and behind it. “I love it when Maggie’s on set,” remarked Michael Biehn. Really? Why’s that? “She makes me laugh so much I forget I haven’t got a trailer…” (Dragon Squad is soon to be released on Dragon Dynasty as Dragon Heat, so you can check out the Michael and Maggie team in action.)
Her MI3 casting took Maggie to whole new level within the industry. To her great credit, she seems to have kept almost every friend from her pre-Hollywood days. I was so proud to attend the MI3 premiere in Rome with Maggie’s parents. Look, up on the screen with Tom, the girl who helped tile my office floor! (Actually, she did the tiling, and I just sort of got in the way…) After this auspicious debut, she showed her range with the raucous comedy Balls Of Fury and the dark drama The Tourist, before signing on for another furious and fast franchise flick, the above mentioned Die Hard 4.
Not that she forgot her Asian roots. As regular readers of this blog will remember, I visited Ms. Q on the set of Daniel Lee’s period epic Three Kingdoms. I’m sure that the inevitable worldwide success of Die Hard will take Maggie to new heights. Looking back on her career here, I think she was always ready for Hollywood. It just took Hollywood a while to get ready for her.
Comments
- Zanshiro, Maryland, USA | 2007-06-16 16:41:16
- Jordan Yee - Ah Lung Productions, New Zealand | 2007-06-22 07:11:59
- maruchit, pune | 2007-07-17 09:51:05
- Don Jariyasunant, La Palma, CA | 2007-06-16 12:50:59