TERENCE CHANG: HITMAKER OR HACK?

John Woo's producing partner, Terence Chang, announces almost as many projects as John Woo, and just as few of them come to fruition. But now he's seen a gap in the Chinese market and he's rushing to fill it with three, medium-budget (US$10 million), commercial features that he doesn't plan on sending to Cannes or Toronto. They're just mid-sized movies with no other goal than to make money. This is a formula that stood Hong Kong in good stead for years, but these days without some artistic ambition you might be turning out future classics or you might be turning out direct-to-video junk. It's hard to tell.

While working in China putting together John Woo's 2007 BATTLE OF RED CLIFF, Chang saw his opportunity and is releasing three movies before Woo's flick starts rolling. Director Alexi Tan has pretty much abandoned his other Terence Chang project, the Thai film DETOUR, for the first of these, an unnamed 1930's gangster flick. Then there's an adaptation of the Japanese manga, IRON FIST CHINMI, without any names attached. Finally, there's CITY OF NINE DRAGONS, a 1950's flick set in Hong Kong, again with no names attached at this point.

This is either very interesting, or else it's a guide to future movies to avoid, or a list of future projects that won't materialize. Right now it's too early to tell.