Ruthless Super-Cop

1992's Hard Boiled (I prefer the literal English translation title, Hot-Handed God of Cops) was John Woo's last real hurrah. Though his film credits date to the late 1960s, he hit big in 1986 with A Better Tomorrow and The Killer in 1989. As Woo's output kickstarted Hong Kong action's international reputation, American studios took notice. Soon after Hard Boiled, Woo would head to American shores, directing tough-guy trio Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Vosloo, and Lance Henriksen in 1993's soft-boiled Hard Target.

In reporting a movie's spinoff properties, this blog often has occasion to discuss video games, but this may be a first: Woo's sequel to Hard Boiled hit Gamestops everywhere on Tuesday. It may be a pointless exercise in semantics (or marketing), but Stranglehold has been billed since conception stages not as a licensed product, but a full-fledged sequel to the film, simply in a different medium. This opens up a whole kettle of arguments with regard to the differences - is a TV spin-off series a sequel? - but this has been Woo's standpoint, and to my knowledge, he becomes the first major film director to direct a video game. With the games-as-art debate raging, I'm surprised Stranglehold hasn't been used as example more often.

The Playstation 3 version of the game comes packaged with a Blu-Ray copy of Hard Boiled.

It's not surprising that Woo would lend his credibility to a game; he seems to feel video games are the way of the future, or at least a workable commodity. He's producing Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six video game series (technically, it might be based on the novel that preceded the series, but the massive popularity of the games are what got the film its green light), set for 2010. The same year, he's set to produce a film version of a video game that isn't out yet (so don't expect that date to hold steady), game auteur Warren Spector's Ninja Gold.

I believe John Woo is the first major director to be a playable character.