No one knows who I am. No one knows where I am

“No one knows who I am. No one knows where I am.”
—JOE

In 2005, while preparing to work with Hong Kong-based filmmakers Oxide and Danny Pang on their first English language film, The Messengers, producers William Sherak and Jason Shuman decided to screen the rising stars’ entire body of work. They were bowled over by what they saw.

One film in particular fascinated Sherak and Shuman: the original Thai language film Bangkok Dangerous. A dark and surprising thriller about a deaf mute hitman and his apprentice, Bangkok Dangerous was released in 1999 to international critical acclaim and had appeared at a number of international film festivals, even winning the International Critics Award (FIPRESCI) at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.

Sherak says he and his partner knew immediately the film would translate brilliantly to an English-language remake. “We became big fans of the original Bangkok Dangerous. As we got to be friends with the Pangs, Jason and I told them we thought it was a really interesting story that should be remade in English.”

For their parts, the Pangs were equally intrigued. Identical twins born in Hong Kong, the brothers have made several cult favorite films including The Eye, a supernatural thriller recently remade in English starring Jessica Alba and produced by Tom Cruise.

This time, however, the Pangs were being offered a rare opportunity to recreate their own film. “We thought it would be an interesting challenge to update the concept after more than six years,” says Oxide Pang. “We were able to take the same concept, the same idea, refine it considerably and bring it to a bigger audience.”

To adapt the original film, Sherak and Shuman brought on Jason Richman, writer of the 2002 action comedy Bad Company, starring Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. In addition to updating the story, the producers wanted to make sure that Richman captured an accurate picture of Thai culture, so they arranged for him to spend time in Bangkok and experience it first-hand.

“We came out to Thailand for about a week to do a research trip,” Richman remembers. “Once we were there, the script came to me very fast. It certainly didn’t take as long as usual. I think the opportunity to meet the people and to experience the city beyond all the usual tourist locations gave me much of the inspiration I needed.

“The time I spent there was instrumental in opening my eyes to how beautiful the people and culture are in Thailand. Coupling the peaceful nature of the country and the actions of a killer for hire was a wonderful exercise for me,” he says.

The producers were delighted with the script. “It’s a very simple story, told very well,” says Sherak. “Nowadays, we see movies that have such complicated plots that we lose much of the characterization. What Jason did is make the plot easy to follow and very simple so the audience can focus on these interesting characters and their lives from the beginning to the end of the movie.”

The Pang Brothers were pleasantly surprised by the streamlined development process. “I had heard that normally there are multiple writers involved with Hollywood scripts,” says Danny. “Jason took this one from the first draft to the final draft and brought us a no nonsense script that was true to the original movie.”

From the project’s inception, Richman, Sherak and Shuman felt there was only one actor who could do justice to the role of Joe. “We had Nicolas Cage in mind for Joe while we were developing the script,” says Sherak. “The character of Joe does not have a lot of dialogue, so we needed an actor who could use his aura and inner life to convey emotions. Nic is perfect for that.”

Cage, an aficionado of Asian cinema who had worked with Hong Kong action maestro John Woo on the hit film Face/Off, was already an admirer of the Pang Brothers’ work in general and of Bangkok Dangerous in particular.

“What I liked about the original movie was the style and the editing and the pacing of the film. When I saw the new script, I was intrigued by the relationship between my character, Joe Ender, and Shahkrit’s character, Kong, as a teacher-student relationship that ultimately becomes a friendship. I always think it’s interesting to see different cultures cooperating, co-existing and getting along.”

Producer Norm Golightly, president of Cage’s production company, Saturn Films, adds: “We thought it would be fantastic to combine a big Hollywood star with (some) authentic Asian filmmaking. It’s a really fresh experience for Nic and I to be on someone else’s turf - working the way they work, doing things the way they do things.”

While landing a star of Cage’s caliber was an enormous boost for the film, it also raised interesting questions about the best way to adapt the script. In the original version of the film, Joe is deaf and mute—disabilities which underscore his isolation. “We had seen a lot of movies about killers and we thought they were wasting too much time talking,” explains Oxide. “We thought that in reality, a killer wouldn’t speak a lot, he would need to focus all his time and attention on his target. The idea of a deaf mute killer came from that.”

In the new film, however, the character’s isolation comes not from a physical limitation but from his inability to speak Thai and his unfamiliarity with the local culture. “We decided that coming to Bangkok as a westerner and not speaking the language created a similar distance between Joe and his surroundings. Thai is such a hard language to pick up, you’re almost as lost as if you can’t speak or hear.”

In a reference to the original film though, Richman decided to include a deaf-mute character - Fon. Fon is a beautiful young woman, whose instant connection with Joe underscores their mutual isolation especially because of the difficulty of communication from both sides. “I really like the bond between Nic’s character and Fon,” says the screenwriter. “It’s a unique relationship—a sincere love story—and it was great fun to work on.”