John Woos production company Lion Rock Entertainment is developing a big screen sequel to the classic 1992 Hong Kong action film
Hard Boiled. Screenwriters
Jeremy Passmore (
Special) and
Andre Fabrizio (upcoming John Carpenter film
The Prince) are penning the adaption of the Woo-produced 2007 video game
Strangehold, which was an official sequel to
Hard Boiled and featured star
Chow Yun-Fat reprising his role as hard-boiled cop Inspector Tequila Yuen. I assume the film being developed for American audiences, as American screenwriters are attached. Which makes me wonder if this would be a real sequel to
Hard Boiled, or a stand-alone film which could function as a sequel to
Hard Boiled in an alternative universe where the first film took place in the United States (and some people thought Watchmen was confusing?).
The original film has garnered cult status and is considered one of the greatest and most influential action films of all time (#9) and of the the top cult films of all time (#18) by Entertainment Weekly . Empire Magazine said that it was more exciting than a dozen Die Hards and even went on to include the films lead protagonist, Tequila, as #33 on their list of the greatest movie characters of all time. The film includes a famous action sequence in a burning hospital that was shot in one long take lasting 2 minutes and 42 seconds with a single handheld camera. If you havent seen Hard Boiled, you really should. Normally Id recommend Netflixing the movie, but this time Im going to tell you just to buy it there is no excuse not to own it.
Amazon is selling copies of the double disc Ultimate edition for around $11. Strangely enough, the PlayStation 3 version of the Collectors Edition of Stranglehold contains the only high-definition version of the film currently available as a bonus option.
