17-11-08: DANIEL IN THE DRAGON’S DEN

Talking ‘Protégé’ and more with (and about) Wu (part one)

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I was one of the first industry people Daniel Wu met when he first relocated to Hong Kong, and its been uphill since then (for him, anyway…). I knew his sister Gloria, albeit slightly, and she asked me to offer him what advice I could about the local industry. Gloria herself was a Hong Kong TV presenter at the time, but her true moment of glory came when she was ringside for the tournament scenes in ‘Bloodsport’ (yes, BLOODSPORT!) starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

As you all know, we Logans can pick a winner when we see one. I took one look at Daniel and said… “you’ve never acted, you don’t speak Chinese and I don’t think you’re that handsome, so go back to prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /San Francisco and be an architect.” (Ha!) Fortunately, for both Daniel and the local film industry, Jackie Chan had somewhat better taste, and quickly signed Daniel to a management deal with his JC Group. Since then, Wu has proved himself one of the most hard-working and gifted Hong Kong actors of his generation, and also made an impact as a director (winning Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his mockumentary The Heavenly Kings) and as a singer (okay, maybe not this last, but, besides my children, that is, nobody’s perfect…)

Daniel came on the scene just as Media Asia, the company I worked for, was moving from distribution and art-house production to becoming a major producer of mainstream Hong Kong movies. I don’t know that we ever got the respect that was our due, but I think MA had as good a run as anyone in this era. After I introduced director Benny Chan to the company, they signed Benny to make Gen-X Cops. Daniel made an impression in the film as an ill-fated young gang leader; I worked behind-the-scenes, coaching the Japanese bad guy in English, rewriting the dialogue and even playing a cameo. Though no-one knew at the time, Gen-X was a cornerstone Hong Kong film, bringing a new generation of on and off-screen talent to the fore.

As I recall, the original casting for the thriller Purple Storm was Tony Leung (Kar-fai) and Tony Leung (Chiu-wai). (I ran in to director Teddy Chen recently, and he remembers differently!) Anyway, that deal fell through and the decision was taken to cast Daniel in the lead. Some people think this is still his best performance, and it was definitely the best Media Asia film of that period. I remember flying to Japan with producer Thomas Chung, and Purple Storm was playing as the in-flight movie. I told Thomas that, even if the film didn’t make as much money as we hoped, I was still proud we made it, and he seemed to like that.  

I visited Daniel at his new company’s Wanchai offices to shoot an interview for the Dragon Dynasty DVD of Derek Yee’s Protégé. We had huge success with an earlier film, The Banquet, in which Daniel starred with Zhang Ziyi. We had retitled the film Legend of the Black Scorpion for the North American market, and it outdid our expectations. Protégé is a very different kind of film, a contemporary crime drama set in the Asian drugs world, and we’re preparing a prestige package to bring it to the west.

Ironically, the main selling point for Daniel when he first came into the industry was his martial arts ability. Despite the fact that he’s a long time Wu Shu practitioner, but he has seldom been given a chance to cut loose on screen. The focus has been on Wu as a dramatic actor, and, given that the business moved away from kung fu movies, this has stood him in good stead.

One of the relatively few films calling on Daniel to wu his shu was the underrated Jackie Chan vehicle ‘Around The World In 80 Days’. I love the moment in that where Daniel, as the leader of the Black Scorpion gang, has star Steve Coogan held prisoner, and threatens him with this weird wrist blade. “I’m not scared of you,” bluffs Coogan, “or your silly knife.” Then the knife pops out an inch from his face. “All right,” he concedes, “it’s not silly…”

I asked Daniel if there were dozens of NG shots of him cracking up as Coogan gave his riposte, but, as he remembered it, there were instead dozens of NGs with him expressing his frustration, as the spring-loaded knife refused to launch on cue.

I also mentioned to him the last time I had met his sister. She and a bunch of friends were at a restaurant celebrating the birthday of one of their number, and apparently were joking with her that she had to marry the next guy to emerge from the men’s room. And it turned out to be me. Gloria took one look, shook her head and quipped “Okay, any guy who isn’t Bey Logan…” Wise words. (Actually, I think I met my first wife via a similar method.)

It was him, officer...: Bey and Daniel line up