bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Edmund Lee

DANIEL WU YIN-CHO  really shouldn't be sitting here chatting. The actor-producer, one of Hong Kong cinema's hottest properties, is still on a year-long, self-imposed hiatus from acting to spend time with Raven, his first child with model Lisa Selesner. After 16 years of lighting up the silver screen in more than 60 films, the 39-year-old has found life outside work.
"I made the decision because I know a child's development is not something you can get back," he says. "I really want to take time and be in the moment with my kid for at least the first year. I know she's not going to remember that, but it's really for the family chemistry. She's going to change every day for the rest of her life, but this moment is so new to me. I want to just sit down and enjoy it."
Wu's pledge means that, until June, he is primarily going to concentrate on his behind-the-scenes duties and work on projects that he had meant to develop but never found the time for. That he has taken a day out to promote his new film  Control, which he produced and stars in, speaks to Wu's passion for it. "I feel like I've matured a lot as a man," says the proud father. "It's through having a family and through producing this film that I've learned a lot about myself - and also how to actually be a producer on a project.
"I've done producing before but I think I was most active on this film, because we started from zero with the script, went to find investment, got a crew, planned about how to shoot, and then while we were shooting, I was sometimes an actor and sometimes a producer. Wearing two hats on set is really tough."
Directed by Kenneth Bi Kwok-chi, who also penned the script, which is based on  Remote Control by Jack Messitt, the tightly written thriller follows Wu's insurance salesman character as he tries to track down the mysterious figure who has been forcing him - and many other isolated citizens - to commit crimes through the omnipresent surveillance system of an unnamed, futuristic city.
In a 2011 web interview, Messitt described his original story as "sort of The Usual Suspects and The Inside Man meets Eagle Eye", and it was first brought to Wu's attention three years ago when Bi invited him to join its cast. It was the second time that the director had approached him with an acting role - the first was for 2007's  The Drummer, which Wu turned down due to scheduling conflicts.
He has since been impressed by how Bi works with actors in films such as Girl$ (2010), which features new and non-professional actors. After telling me that it was a conscious decision for his company to support new directors and actors, Wu describes Bi as "an actor's director".
"Kenny is really interested in the process of how actors create their performances," he says. "Even for this project, we had a two-week rehearsal period before we started filming - you never get that in Hong Kong films. It was to build up the chemistry [among] the actors. Things like that make a difference to how you make a movie: it makes it a lot easier and a lot more fun."
Control is also the kind of film that Diversion Pictures, the production company he co-founded with Stephen Fung Tak-lun in 2011, wants to make. "After reading the script, I found it very much in tune with our company," Wu says. "This is like a film noir. In terms of the genre itself, I think not many people are doing film noir in Asia - maybe there's a bit more in Japan, but certainly not in Chinese-language cinema. That's what excited us.
"At Diversion we want to do genres that people are not doing - or if we're doing genres that people are doing, to do them in a fresh way. In  Tai Chi Zero and  Tai Chi Hero [the first two films produced by the company], we broke down what was the traditional wuxia pian [genre conventions of martial arts films] and turned it into something a little different - by putting rock music and steampunk elements in, doing the Street Fighter style CG over the fights, and all that stuff. We wanted to freshen up the genre."
Technologically speaking, Control can be regarded as a major step up from the two Stephen Fung-directed Tai Chi movies: by Wu's estimate, the new film has some 800 computer generated shots compared with 300 from all the earlier efforts combined.
But while Wu and Fung look completely at ease with the creative vision of their productions, the long-time friends may still need some further refining when it comes to their business acumen. When I bring up the disappointing local and mainland box office returns of the two martial arts comedies - likely to be remnants of a purported trilogy - Wu smiles.
"I think making movies is like serving buffet," Wu says. "You can't just give everyone steak because they will get f***ing tired of it. It's like, you can't eat that much beef. So the point was, how could we make a beef dish that is slightly different? That's what we did there. I think we're successful at that and we're happy - and I'm happy - with what we got on that."
He continues, "I mean, at the end of the day, to me, getting it out there was a success already, right? And the box office, to me - because it's not my own money - is a bonus. I'm not let down by the box office."
The two films did ultimately make most of their money back from sales to American and European markets, although the issue appears to be circling in Wu's mind nonetheless. A while after our interview is over, Wu walks back to me and remarks on the experience for a second time: "Coming back to your question about Tai Chi," he says, "I think filmmaking is a gamble anyway, right? You never know the results from the start."
On the one hand, Wu simply cares too much to pretend that he doesn't. On the other hand, however, the actor can pretty much just sit back and admire his own recent efforts for the time being.
Apart from Control, Wu has three other films that are due for release in the coming months. They include a co-starring turn opposite Nick Cheung Ka-fai in Dante Lam Chiu-yin's That Demon Within, a cameo appearance in Johnnie To Kei-fung's Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2, as well as another leading role in the  Overheard franchise's third instalment, which reunites the supporting casts of the first two films in a story about unscrupulous land developers.
With the recent announcement he will be joining the cast of Warcraft, the Duncan Jones-directed video game adaptation set to be released in 2016, Wu can take comfort in the fact his career now looks more secure than ever as he heads into his 40s this year.
"I definitely don't think I'm going to have a mid-life crisis. That's for sure - at this point," he says. "It's weird ... because while you're going and moving ahead, you feel like, 'I haven't done enough, I haven't done enough', but if you stop and look back, I've done quite a lot. From all the movies I've done and produced, things are moving in the right direction - plus now I have a family and I'm quite happy."
The established actor, fledging producer and rookie father pauses for a second, most likely savouring the moment as he collects his thoughts, and adds, "Actually, I'm probably happier now - with where I am in life - than I have ever been. I finally feel like I'm an adult now."
edmund.lee@scmp.com
 
Control opens on January 16
 


Level up: Daniel Wu enters a new phase in his life and career

Daniel Wu. Photo portraits: Harry C@Project Mandrill. Hair: S.L@fifth. Make-up: Jane Leung. Wardrobe: Diesel. Venue: MaxHome@E-Max

Daniel Wu in a scene from Kenneth Bi's Control.

Control paints a vision of a dystopian future.

Yao Chen and Daniel Wu in a scene from the film.

Magazines

48 Hours

With his own production company, a beautiful new daughter and a series of high-profile film roles on the horizon, actor-producer Daniel Wu has the world at his feet, writes Edmund Lee


With his own production company, a beautiful new daughter and a series of high-profile film roles on the horizon, actor-producer Daniel Wu has the world at his feet, writes Edmund Lee.
