It completely depends on the director. Most don’t want the writers around — and what’s shot is sometimes quite different than what’s on the page. With Face/Off it was very collaborative. Michael Colleary and I worked intimately with Mr. Woo - and sometimes the storyboard artist - on most of the action sequences. But to give credit where it’s due: Woo is the master — and he was an endless fountain of exciting, new ideas. For example, the scene where the speedboat flies through the exploding police vessel was totally Woo’s idea. And that’s one of the most iconic action beats in the film. We also spent a lot of time working with our production designer, Neil Spisak – especially on the prison stuff.
But for newbie writers reading this: you still have to write a kick-ass, never-seen-that-before scene, all blocked out in thrilling detail on the page. Because that’s what will help sell your material. And that’s how you’ll get an opportunity for some director to completely change it.
How much of what you write shows up in the finished action scenes?
Sometimes the action scene is shot exactly — or almost exactly — as written. Often it changes depending on the director’s vision, on-set inspiration, stunt department concerns, budgetary issues etc.
Take the opening action sequence at the airport. We wrote ten different versions before Mr. Woo was satisfied. We were left to our own devices on how to put Castor Troy in a coma. The tenth version was approved — and that’s what you see in the film. We set the location at a private airport. We had Castor meeting up with his brother Pollux at their hired private jet. And we wrote the basics of the FBI assault. And Castor’s murder of FBI agent Winters (the “flight attendant” plant). And Sean Archer piloting the helicopter. And disabling the jet by landing on it. And the crash into the hanger, the capture of Pollux, Agent Loomis’s ear getting blown off, the intimate confrontation between the hero and bad guy — and the jet turbine beat which sends Castor flying into a coma. That stuff was in the script. We wrote the dialogue and the spine of the sequence. But again, the meat on the bones was pure Woo, including, but not limited to: the famous flapping of Castor’s trench coat, the game of chicken, the engine being shot out, the cat & mouse inside the wrecked hanger, the signature duel guns beat etc. Oh, and Nic Cage ad-libbed the singing bit which Travolta apes at the climax.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Now I might have to re-watch Face/Off, a movie I hated. The marketing was all about the actors, neither of which I care for. I'll have to follow the writing more closely.
2 - Mary K. Williams
Nice work Tan, what a great opportunity you had here.