Hard Target hit theaters in 1993. At the box office, the tape collected a good box office, and Jean-Claude Van Damme received a nomination at the MTV Movie Awards. Jean-Claude Van Damme and John Woo met in Hong Kong while filming Double Impact. Van Damme decided he wanted to work with Wu in Hollywood. Then he returned to Hong Kong and personally convinced the director to work together.
John Woo in Hollywood faced many unusual restrictions for him. Asian cinema was much freer.
Hollywood, too, reacted to Wu with distrust and attracted Sam Raimi to shoot.
Kurt Russell was originally considered for the lead role in Hard Target. The actor also liked the script and he agreed. But Russell could start filming only after a couple of years. But they did not wait and invited Van Damme. The role of the main antagonist went to Lance Henriksen. John Woo gave Henriksen a general vector for character development and further, he did not interfere in the actor’s improvisation.
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At the end of the tape, Lance Henriksen’s coat caught fire. This was not in the plans. But the actor did not panic, but continued to play the role. As a result, this frame was decided to be left in the film.
Hard Target may not have been director John Woo’s first film in Hollywood. In 1991, American producers were already trying to tie up the director to work on a “realistic” film about martial arts. But the Warner studio project fell apart during pre-production.
But John Woo was not so tolerant of the original script. When Wu was confirmed as director, he changed almost all of the action scenes in the script. Van Damme, although he supported changes to the script, in general, he also made his own edits. For example, “Hard Target”, at the editing stage, the scene with the chase on boats disappeared.
John Woo probably enjoyed the scene. The director’s cut of “Hard Target” was 127 minutes, and on the screen we see a film lasting 97 minutes. the film was cut for this reason.
Van Damme didn’t like that Lance Henriksen’s character took up as much screen time as his character.
Van Damme took the originals for himself and locked himself in a room for two days. After that, the actor presented his version of the montage.
The second reason the tape was heavily cut was the age rating.
The creators of the hard target claimed an “R” rating, but the commission stubbornly gave out “NC-17”. The film had to be returned for editing 7 times until the desired rating was obtained. All the suffering paid off when Hard Target hit the screens. With a budget of $15 million, which the director kept close to, the film grossed more than $74 million worldwide.
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