The only signs of anything or anyone stirring in the eerily-deserted hospital in downtown Los Angeles are the huge equipment and wardrobe trucks in the parking lot and the cardboard arrows which say 'Martial Law location 4/F'.
It is 9.30am but the second unit team for Martial Law, the new CBS prime-time series that makes its debut in the United States tonight, has already been hard at work for three hours. All of which would not normally interest us - except that this is the first US prime-time series to star a Hong Kong actor.
Things have come a long way since late kung fu legend Bruce Lee quit Hollywood in disgust after they cast David Carradine instead in Kung Fu because they wanted a Westerner in the role.
At 1.7 metres and 100 kilograms, 47-year-old Sammo Hung is not high on everyone's list of Hollywood lead actor hopefuls. He would be the first to say the same.
When the lift doors open on the fourth floor, a babble of Cantonese and English greets me as the crew rush about the cramped ward preparing for the next scene. The first person I recognise is former Miss Hong Kong Mina Joyce Godenzi, now Mrs Sammo Hung and his dialogue coach, bundled in a thick jacket under the full blast of the air-conditioning.
Executive producer/director Stanley Tong Kwai-lai (Rumble In The Bronx, Supercop ) and his second unit director Ailen Sit are in a corner watching two monitors which will show them the action in the Intensive Care Unit. The hero is nowhere to be seen.