Starting with the Visual Communications’ Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the latest collaboration between director John Woo and actor Chow Yun Fat is making the festival rounds.
However, it is not the medium that one might expect. You see, this incarnation is not a film per se- “Stranglehold” is actually a video game.
But in a unique marketing campaign, Midway Games is making Stranglehold’s presence known via film festivals and a short film contest. By sponsoring the VC Filmfest and another festival in New York, Tom McClure, the director of Marketing at Midway said that film festivals are the optimum medium to showcase the game via a contest for filmmakers.
“Stranglehold” is being developed in cooperation with John Woo and demonstrates the convergence of film and video games in the Entertainment Industry,” McClure said. “We were also looking for creative ways to market the game and felt that the film fest was a great crossover audience-wise. The VC Film Festival (vconline.org) is a great p lace to showcase this and Midway is one of the sponsors.”
The contest, which runs until June 25 and hosted exclusively on MySpace (www.myspace.com/strangleholdgame) is a 2 ½ minute maximum tribute to Woo, the maker of films such as “Mission Impossible 2” and “Face/Off”. For the filmmaker, who also is the director of “Stranglehold” via his game company Tiger Hill Entertainment), the contest may also help him find the next, well…John Woo.
“Young filmmakers need encouragement to grow; it is an aspect of my profession which I cherish deeply,” Woo said in a statement. “I know the Stranglehold Short Film Contest will find new talent and with it, new possibilities.”
The game is a reunification of sorts between Woo and Chow Yun Fat, since their days of making the 1992 film “Hard Boiled (Lat sau san taam).” The game continues the saga of Inspector Tequila, who now has to cross the line from sworn duty to bloody revenge to defeat a crime boss.
“We wanted to highlight John Woo’s mastery of action cinema and what his involvement brings to the game and how “Stranglehold” serves as an extension of the story and characters first introduced in “Hard Boiled,” McClure said.
The winning short film, selected by John Woo, is planned to debut on Spike TV in August. The grand prize winner will receive $25,000, a trip for two to Midway’s Chicago studios to meet developers and tape an interview for Spike TV, the chance to personally premiere the short film on Spike TV, an authentic “Hard Boiled” movie poster autographed by John Woo, an Amp’d mobile phone with six months’ service, and a copy of the game.
The game is scheduled to be released this summer. For more information on “Stranglehold”, visit the website at Strangleholdgame.com.

Mike Takeuchi is the programming manager for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
He is also an award winning non-fiction writer and a regular contributor to Filmfestivals.com.