- Face/Off (1997)
- Woo had been offered the script in 1992 when he first came to America; it was first offered by Joel Silver as a Warner Bros. production[1]
- Originally a movie set to be directed by Rob Cohen, and later Marco Brambilla, Woo liked the script's premise of having two characters swap lives[2]
- Woo initially declined because the script, written by Michael Colleary and Mike Werb, was originally significantly more steeped in science fiction[1][3]
- In 1995, Paramount Pictures bought the rights and producers Michael Douglas and Steve Reuthers offered the script again to Woo, but he declined because he was in the middle of making Broken Arrow[4]
- Woo wanted to set the story in the near-future of 2002, and more closely examine the familial relationships between the characters[5]
- Paramount also let Woo work without interference; chairman Sherry Lansing deliberately told executives to not give the director any notes because she wanted Woo's style for the movie[6]
- Face/Off was a box office success, earning $245 million on a budget of $80 million[7]
- While Desson Howe of The Washington Post thought Face/Off was "the maddest, most enjoyable blockbuster of the summer", he also believed that the film was "one of the strangest stories to ever get the green light at Hollywood studio."[8]
- Roger Ebert: "Here, using big movie stars and asking them to play each other, Woo and his writers find a terrific counterpoint to the action scenes: All through the movie, you find yourself reinterpreting every scene as you realize the 'other' character is 'really' playing it."[9]
- Time listed it sixth on their list of the best films of 1997[10]
Plot
editCast
editProduction
editConception
editWriting and development
editCasting
editFilming and post-production
editMusic
editDesign
editRelease
editContext
editBox office
editReception
editCritical response
editAccolades
editPost-release
editHome media
editOther media
editThematic analysis
editLegacy
editCultural influence
editCritical reassessment
editSequels and spin-offs
editNotes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Klein, Andy (1997-07-03). "Hurray for Holly-Woo". Dallas Observer. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
- ^ Beresford, Jack (2022-07-09). "The Many Faces of Face/Off: How The Classic Almost Didn't Star Nicolas Cage". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
- ^ Collis, Clark (2000-01-01). "Empire Essay: Face/Off". Empire. Retrieved 2024-03-06.
- ^ "When two talents merge". South China Morning Post. 1997-08-01. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
- ^ Jones, Ralph (2019-09-10). "A deep dive into 'Face/Off': the best, most absurd action film ever made". ShortList. Retrieved 2024-03-06.
- ^ Thompson 2005, p. 151.
- ^ Fordy, Tom (2022-04-20). "Face/Off: How Nicolas Cage, Die Hard and a confused Johnny Depp helped make an action classic". The Independent. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
- ^ Howe, Desson (1997-06-27). "'Face/Off': Trading Places". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1997-06-27). "Face/Off". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 2024-03-06.
- ^ "The Best Cinema of 1997". Time. 1997-12-29. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
Cited literature
edit- Elder, Robert K., ed. (2005). John Woo: Interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers Series. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-776-3. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Heard, Christopher (2000). Ten Thousand Bullets: The Cinematic Journey of John Woo. Lone Eagle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58065-021-2. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Stokes, Lisa Odham; Hoover, Michael (1999). City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema. Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-716-9. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Further reading
editExternal links
edit- Hard Boiled at IMDb
- Hard Boiled at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
- Hard Boiled at AllMovie
- Hard Boiled at Letterboxd
- Hard Boiled at the TCM Movie Database