Louis Koo On Backing New Talent, Hollywood Moves, ‘Warriors Of Future’ – KristenBellTattoos.com

special: Released in August, Lois Coe’s sci-fi action thriller Warriors of the future With earnings of HK$81.7M (US$10.5M), it became not only the highest-grossing local film of all time in Hong Kong, but also the highest-grossing Asian film released in the territory. Is. The film also grossed $100 million in China over the summer and is currently number four on Netflix’s global list of non-English language films after its worldwide release on December 2.

It’s an encouraging result for Hong Kong’s film industry, which has faced frequent and long cinema closures during the pandemic – the last ending just this April. It is also an unusual achievement for a Hong Kong sci-fi film, as the region has never before attempted a film of this genre and scale.

Directed by visual effects expert Ng Yuen FaiBodyguards and assassins), the $56 million film was made over six years by Koo’s One Cool Group, a full-service production, distribution and VFX outfit, which he launched in Hong Kong and Bangkok in 2013. Koo also heads the cast of the film along with Shaan. Lau Ching Wan and Carina Lau. One of Hong Kong’s biggest stars with more than 100 credits to his name, Ko also works in other company films, including the recent credits Yes, the storm, Anita And the upcoming action drama Twilight of the Warriors: Into the Wall.

Addressing. KristenBellTattoos.com After the start of Warriors of the future On Netflix, Koo explains that One Cool started by providing CGI and DI. [digital intermediate] Services, later branched out into film production, equipment services, artist management and regional distribution. Ng is part of the award-winning VFX house Fatface Production Group.

“We have made many films, but the idea was to create a one-stop shop, covering the entire chain of production and distribution, so that we have a stable source of income between film productions,” he said. Koo explains. .

For many years, Koo did not go public about his founding of the group, although it was an open secret in the Hong Kong film industry, because he did not want his star status to detract from his work. . In addition to the big-budget Hong Kong-China co-productions, including the upcoming action drama. Back to the past and crime thrillers Beyond sinthe company also produces a number of small-budget films from first-time Hong Kong directors and other emerging talents.

“There is a real need to find new writing and directing talent in Hong Kong, as our industry has had a very successful past, but it is not catering to the tastes of young local audiences,” explains Ko. “They’re not as interested in the action and crime thrillers that we’re known for internationally, so we want to start making films that more closely reflect their lifestyles and experiences.”

Recent examples of these films include Luck Ye Sims. The Secret Diary of a Mother-to-be, about a young career woman who is not happy when she gets pregnant. A Macau-set drama by Emily Chan Madeleine, about the relationship between taxi drivers and bar hostesses; And Jimmy Vaughn’s Zero to Hero, the true story of Hong Kong Paralympic Games athlete Su Wa Wai, was Hong Kong’s submission to the Best International Feature Oscar last year. Made on modest budgets, these films took the local box office by storm and garnered regional festival drama.

Ko says the company’s next steps are to expand into Hollywood and pan-Asian production. Vincool has already invested in two Sony animated films. Vivo And The Mitchells vs. the Machines, the latter of which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature last year. Koo took an executive producer credit on both films, and said he is looking for more investment opportunities, but his main goal is to work on projects that build on Hong Kong’s film industry’s expertise base and new technologies. I support skill development.

Warriors of the future, about humanity’s battle against a deadly plant that crashes to Earth in a meteorite, featured more than 1,900 CGI shots, including fighting robots, human-sized insectoid creatures and two distinct Hong Kong characters. A high-octane car chase created by weaving highways together. . It pushed the Hong Kong film industry to its limits, but the quality of the film’s VFX work has been praised by critics. “It was all difficult, but the robots were the hardest because they had to fight and communicate with each other, so it took a long time to get right,” says Ko.

He added that while One Cool is already active in CGI and 3D animation – the company is currently working on an animated prequel. Warriors of the future – He is also interested in virtual production and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. “While we have no virtual production stages. [a.k.a. volumes] In this region yet, technology can open up new possibilities for sci-fi films,” says Koo, a self-confessed sci-fi fan and collector of robot memorabilia. “We explore not only the sci-fi genre, but also the technology. want to do If budget wise it doesn’t make sense to have the volume here, we will go to America or Australia to shoot.

Closer to home, and recognizing the limitations of the relatively small Hong Kong market, Koo aims to begin developing local language films and series across Asia – with an initial focus on Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea. One Cool already has offices in mainland China, Thailand and Korea and is working with local producers in several regions.

This is a wise move as the Asia-Pacific region is producing more content in more languages ​​than ever before, with a shift towards episodic content and streaming services, like everywhere else in the world. Wincool has an international sales handle for its Chinese-language content, but chose to sell its global rights instead of seeing if and when cinemas around the world begin to recover. Warriors of the future On Netflix in the early days of the pandemic.

Netflix recently announced the film as the headliner of a new slate of Chinese-language content, including several drama series produced in Taiwan. However, the irony is that Warriors of the future It is one of several films from Hong Kong companies that have been gangbusters at the local box office over the summer, including Table for six, Mama’s Affair, Chili laugh story And more recently the courtroom drama Spring partner. Does this mean that Hong Kong’s film industry is already in recovery?

Ko observed that every country’s film industry goes through peaks and troughs, even outside of black swan events like the pandemic: “It’s just that the Hong Kong film industry has reached its lowest point and Now is starting to bounce back. So it’s a great time to try and experiment with new things. We can’t just keep repeating the same old formulas.