RIP: Chris Bates

Late 2012 saw me given the opportunity to work with a number of very close friends and talented An'D artists on the short film GUS & CHLOE, starring Darren E Scott, Grace Huang and Celina Jade, produced by myself, Jenn Thym and Producer/Director Chris Bates.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0060882/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

http://www.gusandchloe.com/

It was a very dark and stylish project, Chris wanted to do it to not only show what he was capable of as a director but also to pitch a full feature featuring characters introduced in the short..it was an intense but very enjoyable shoot, and Chris has been working on the post for the last few months all the while battling Cancer, which had been raging war on him for the last year or so. The last time I saw Chris was for lunch when I was in LA in late March, he was in great spirits, excited about the short and planning for other projects which we were hoping to allow us to collaborate on...

On Sunday morning i was in Jakarta working on THE RAID 2, a project Chris had been excited about seeing and happy to hear i was working on, when we got word that  we had lost a hell of a film-maker and a hell of a friend, when we got the following news from his family...

i'd first been introduced to Chris by prolific film-maker Albert Pyun when they'd been talking about rebooting the KICKBOXER franchise several years ago, although that project fell by the wayside, we had formed a friendship and kept in touch and i finally got to officially work with Chris on two very cool films THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS &   MAN OF TAI CHI,both of which feature a number of An 'd artists both in front and behind the camera including Dani el Wu, Terrence Yin, Byron Mann, Grace Huang, Celina Jade, MC Jin, Andrew Lin, Andrew Ng, Osric Chau and many more... Chris was a hell of a film-maker and his passion and dedication to the industry will be sorely missed, as will his honesty, his guidance and his friendship. Myself and the rest of the cast and crew of GUS & CHLOE intend to finish the film to honor his memory. When the sun got big, and the night came down

We used to share a drink - and let the demons out.

We let the good times rock, you made the bad times roll

We used to laugh a lot, you had a lot of soul

Old friends... in better timesAnd when the going got hard,

When times were tough

We put our backs to the wall,

You used to strut your stuff.

With a head held high and a heart so big

One fist at the sky... and shake a leg.Old friends in better times(even though, even though we miss you now

Look forward don't look back

We'll get by somehow)And so I raise my glass in a last goodbye

Sleep in peace old friend, for me you'll never die

The best thing I can say, after all this time, is

You were a real friend, of mineOld friends... in better times

http://about.me/cbfilm

alivenotdead.com/cbfilm