As many a Hong Kong filmmaker-gone-west will attest, receiving a phone call from a Hollywood studio does not necessarily lead to a happy result.
But twins Danny Pang Fat and Oxide Pang Chun have mostly praise for their US backers. They say they would have 'gone crazy' remaking Bangkok Dangerous but for the logistical backup from Hollywood. The film, set in Thailand, is about a hitman's plans to kill a leading politician - an incendiary subject, given the country's political troubles in recent years.
'This is where the Hollywood system comes into play,' says Danny. 'They don't need the directors to agonise over things; they have procedures in which a lot of people help you straighten out everything before the shooting begins. If it's just an ordinary Hong Kong production, you can really lose your mind over such things.'
It was 'a more comfortable filmmaking experience' than the one they went through in making the original Bangkok Dangerous, he says. That film propelled the duo to fame with awards at the Toronto and Rotterdam festivals in 2000.
'Comfortable' is an unusual description given the events that took place during filming. On September 19, 2006, the Thai army overthrew the government of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Incredibly, production went on uninterrupted as tanks rolled into the city and uncertainty loomed over the country. The film's star, Nicolas Cage, left the set and escorted his family to South Korea before flying back to Bangkok to continue work the next day.
Cage later joked that he and his fellow actors were the only people who fired shots during those tense days in Bangkok. The coup was a bloodless event.
