By Edwin Yeo

Big Action Director Prefers Small Budget

GORDON Chan is one of the biggest action directors in Hongkong.

After all, he is the man who was at the helm of Jackie Chan's highly-successful Thunderbolt three years ago.

But having a big budget isn't always a good thing, revealed Gordon in an interview with The New Paper last Wednesday. "

Being a big budget director has its set of headaches. As a filmmaker, you don't want to just churn out products. As a director, my movies are my vision and you want to make your own films as well," said Gordon, who is in town to shoot his latest movie, 2000 AD.

He added: "My last movie, Beast Cops, was the first movie that I asked for a smaller budget."

Which meant no big explosions, no big car stunts and no big action shots.

A big risk? Surely, but it was one which paid off.

Beast Cops swept numerous awards at this year's Hongkong Film Festival. "

It was a good surprise. All the while, I have been making movies about good cops. For once, I could make a movie about cops which are not that good," he said.

With that taste of success, one would think that Gordon would push more for making smaller movies which are closer to his heart.

Not true.

"All my movies are me in some way. Even the big budget ones," he said.

Which brings us to 2000 AD.

The Raintree Pictures/Media Asia co-production's budget is US$5 million ($8.5 million).

It is one of the biggest budgets he has ever worked with.

He was compelled to take the job because he wanted to work with Singapore. "

I don't think Hongkong will ever dominate the Asian market again. We have to look elsewhere," said the director.

He found things here a little bit slower compared to Hongkong.

He said: "When I revealed that I was going to film in Singapore, many of my industry friends asked me why? They told me that things are very difficult here."

Still, he had praise for the local crew and talent, which included TCS stars James Lye and Phyllis Quek.

"The Singaporean actors are very focused. A little bit nervous maybe. But I am very impressed by them, especially Phyllis. "

"The Singaporean crew also work well with their Hongkong counterparts," said Gordon.

He was guarded against revealing the plot of the film, and would only say that it was a "spy story that involves information warfare".

2000 AD is scheduled for release here during Chinese New Year next year.