Lights, camera...and plenty of movie action for Chee

12:08pm Friday 18th January 2008

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Chee Keong Cheung has become quite a mover and shaker in the movie world.

Rubbing shoulders with some of the industry heavyweights, his latest film packs a mighty punch.

Written, produced and directed by the Lancaster-based filmmaker, Underground follows the story of 12 fighters who compete in an illegal underground tournament for the prize of £500,000.

Chee tells me that a four-week nationwide search was undertaken to find the 12 principal fighters for Underground.

With several hundred submissions, there was a diverse and impressive array of highly skilled and talented performers who auditioned from across the country for a part in Underground.

Chee worked with renowned fight arranger and stuntman Dave Forman of Batman Begins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Last Samurai fame.

Underground stars Danny John-Jules (Blade II, Red Dwarf), Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Mark Strange (Batman Begins, Displaced), three times World Kickboxing Champion Nathan Lewis, who was in Fight School and Batman Begins, and Sophie Linfield, who appeared in Football Factory and The Monk.

Not forgetting a hugely talented cast of martial artists and stunt men in front of and behind the camera, whose credits range from flicks such as the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, The Last Samurai and Jet Li's Fearless.

The film was photographed by Jake Corbett (Ninety Days) and Bafta award-winning Simon Dennis (Woman in Winter, Reverb) and edited by RTS award winning editor Mark Towns, who was on the TV series The Apprentice.

Mark Strange, Oliver Morran and Any Torkington, of T-Tech Digital Media, produced the film.

It was executive produced by Jim Howell, Simon Barnes (Lawnmower Man, Ridley and Tony Scott's The Hunger), Chris Atkins (Bob the Butler, Taking Liberties) and Mike Leeder (Rush Hour 3, Fearless).

Underground was filmed on location in Lancashire and London and has secured worldwide distribution through established UK based sales agent Park Entertainment.

Chee also executive produced the British gangster feature film The Grind, directed by Rishi Opel, which explores the dark and sometimes explosive world of running an East End nightclub.

Meanwhile, never one to let the grass grow under his feet, the gifted guy's next feature is the epic action drama Bodyguard: A New Beginning as writer, director and producer.

A UK/ Hong Kong co-production, he said he was fortunate to put together an impressive cast, including some well known names - Asian actors Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa (Memoirs of a Geisha, The Last Emperor, Mortal Kombat), Richard Ng (Winners and Sinners, My Lucky Stars), Carl Ng (Boarding Gates), Sing Fu On (John Woo's The Killer, God of Gamblers), and rising talent Vincent Sze (SPL, Dragon Tiger Gate, Invisible Target).

British actress Stephanie Langton, who was in the West End production of A Few Good Men and the BBC's Jekyll) takes the lead female role.

A New Beginning tells the story of Leung (Vincent Sze), the bodyguard of a Hong Kong Triad boss, Wong (Richard Ng) who is sent to the UK to protect a woman whose identity is only known by his boss.

Even the boss's own errant son, Yuen (Carl Ng), is kept in the dark. The efforts of a rival boss, Kai (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) to take over Wong's territory leads Yuen to a betrayal that threatens to destroy all that his father has worked hard to protect.

Working on the action for the film enabled Chee to collaborate with Anthony Carpio (Police Story, Accidental Spy) and Chan Man Ching of Rush Hour and Rumble in the Bronx fame, two long-standing members of the Jackie Chan stunt team and renowned stuntmen and action choreographers.

Producing alongside Chee were Hong Kong-based producers Mike Leeder (Rush Hour 3, The Mummy 3), Ean Tang (Fearless, Rush Hour 3) of Screen Ops, Mark Strange and Oliver Morran of Intense Productions, and executive producers Jim Howell and Simon Barnes of Park Entertainment.

The film is scheduled for worldwide release in 2008.

And if that's not enoughChee is developing the film drama Dreams with British producer Tim Hampton, who just happened to be the former vice-president of 20th Century Fox as well as John Stephenson, who was the creative director of Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

Both are producers on the project.

So, when did Chee decide to pick up a camera and focus his career on film In 1998, Chee enrolled at the prestigious Surrey Institute of Art and Design in Surrey in the UK, taking a BA hons degree in film and video production, where he graduated with a First Class Hons. During his time at The Surrey Institute, he collaborated and developed numerous acclaimed 16mm short films and feature film projects, including the acclaimed short In Memory Of directed by Tom Haines, which was nominated for Best Film at the renowned Clermont Ferrand Film Festival in France. Chee also continued to work on his own projects, developing numerous scripts and films, and collaborating with filmmakers from around the world.

Other short films included, the acclaimed Ninety Days directed by Tristan Higgs, which starred Beth Winslet (Kate Winslet's sister and Cigarette, a period short film set in the 1930s, directed by Oliver Morran, written by established Scottish writer Des Dillon and photographed by Grant Cameron (Life on Mars, Orphans), and which was nominated for Best Film at the prestigious Brit Shorts Film Festival held in Berlin, Germany.

In 1999, Chee founded Intense Productions, a production and facilitation company based in the UK.

His idea was to produce and facilitate diverse, innovative and commercially successful productions from short films, music videos, documentaries to feature films, combining both established and up and coming talent.

And he has.

Come 2002, and Chee partnered with Straightwire Music Promos to co-produce music promos.

The first, a 35mm promo Tabloid Queen, for rising UK solo artist Jamie Pearce, was broadcast on various channels, including MTV and Chart Show TV on Sky. It was followed by a collaboration with multi Ivor Novello award winning artist Mark Hill (formerly of Artful Dodger and Craig David fame) and his single Young and Foolish, which featured the vocal talents of the MOBO award winning and multi Grammy nominated British sensation, Corinne Bailey-Rae.

The video was directed by multi award-winning Mike Brady, who was behind such gems as A Town Called Malice for The Jam, The Eurythmics' Love is a Stranger, and Wham's Bad Boys.

Chee's next big success came in 2004 when acclaimed Irish filmmaker Chris Baugh approached him with the short film script for Crashing The Wake, a humorous story about life, death and plumbing. Chee produced the film, which went on to receive numerous awards and accolades, including a nomination for The Orange Best Film Award at the 4th Belfast Film Festival 2004, an official selection to close the Mid Ulster Film Festival 2004 and was awarded Best Film and Best Script at the North West Film Festival 2005. Television contracts were also secured for the films broadcast on Irish and Japanese TV.

The same year, Chee provided script consultancy on Andrew Greener's script for his short film End Game, a dark thriller set in contemporary Belfast. The film went on to secure funding from the Northern Ireland Film and TV commission and was awarded second prize at The TCM Classic Shorts Competition.

When Chee and me last caught up in 2005, he had developed the period production Where Love Reigns, set in 1904, which is based around the forbidden love story between Dr Carl Jung and his patient Sabina Spielrein.

Chee had put together an amazing team and some of the industry's finest and most respected talent.

It was directed by newcomer David Ness, and executive produced by no less than Academy Award winning Martin Scorsese with another Academy Award winner Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death) working as cinematographer and creative consultant.

Also in 2005, Chee was as associate producer on the independent sci-fi action feature film Displaced.

To date Chee and Intense have collaborated on more than 50 productions, and received international awards and nominations, working with international filmmakers from the UK, Hong Kong, Ireland, America, Canada, South Africa, India, Australia, Norway and Greece.

Definitely a talented filmmaker and writer whose going places.