Woo was asked to direct a TV movie based on his earlier 1990 film;[1] he says he was asked two years prior to a 1996 interview[2]
Through connections with William Morris Agency, Woo met and befriended screenwriters Glenn Davis and William Laurin in 1994; Glenn and Laurin worked at Alliance Communications, a Canadian production company[3][4]
Woo: "As long as it's a good script and there are good people to work with, it doesn't matter if the project is a big-budget film or a small-budget TV series [...] I wanted to reach more people and try something different."[2]
This TV movie aired on Fox in hopes that the broadcaster would pick it up as a series[6]
It also aired on Canada television stations; Woo was both the director and co-executive producer[7]
Woo, on the series appearing on Fox: "After I made the pilot, I fell in love with television. So I would be producer and if I have time, I would direct some of the episodes because I really love this project."[8]
John Haslett Cuff of The Globe and Mail panned the movie, saying that it was "lacking the authentic charm and genuine physical genius of a Jackie Chan"[11]
Steven Linan of the Los Angeles Times criticised the film for "perfunctory action sequences" and "awful acting"[12]
Fox opted to not turn Once a Thief into a series[13]
Two years later in 1998, The Movie Channel bought the pilot, airing a "director's cut" version that restored unseen footage cut from the initial broadcast on Fox[14][15]
^Allemang, John (1997-09-12). "Television Once a Thief steals a page from John Woo". The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ontario. pp. C.2. ISSN0319-0714. Retrieved 2024-06-11 – via ProQuest. Now Davis and Laurin, ex-Montreal sketch comedians (including a year of writing for Air Farce), and veterans of the Hollywood wars (NBC's South Beach among others), are looking to see if the more broadly based TV audience can summon up the same enthusiasm for the name of John Woo. [...] Davis and Laurin, who work with Toronto's Alliance Communications, were first summoned by the William Morris Agency to meet the master himself in 1994. The rapport they developed eventually led to a two-hour pilot directed by Woo himself, which was shown on Global and Fox earlier this year.
^Boone, Mike (1997-09-14). "Once a Thief has N.D.G. ties". The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec. pp. C.6. Retrieved 2024-06-11 – via ProQuest. For the last 10 years, Laurin and Davis have worked in television. Their credits include Alfred Hitchcock Presents (for which they wrote 41 episodes in 52 breakneck weeks), Scene of the Crime, Mann and Machine, Dracula: The Series and South Beach. [...] Producers at Toronto's Alliance persuaded celebrated director John Woo (The Killer, Hard-Boiled, Broken Arrow, Face/Off) to lend his name to a TV series, and lured Laurin and Davis from California.
^Kelleher, Terry (1996-09-29). "John Woo Takes a Shot At Television". Newsday. Long Island, New York. p. 03. Retrieved 2024-06-11 – via ProQuest. His first small-screen project, "John Woo's Once a Thief," airs tonight on the Fox network (WNYW / 5 at 8) and on stations across Canada. Woo serves as director and co-executive producer of the two-hour movie, a Canadian-American production designed as the pilot for a possible series.
^Cuff, John Haslett (1996-09-27). "Battered old men recall Canada's game". The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ontario. Retrieved 2024-06-10 – via ProQuest. But lacking the authentic charm and genuine physical genius of a Jackie Chan, Once a Thief seems like just another throwaway TV movie desperately playing "cute" to win the audience's affections.
