When presented with the idea for Bulletproof Monk, producers Terence Chang and John Woo were immediately intrigued. Originally published as a three-comic series by Flypaper Press in the late ‘90s, Bulletproof Monk was an ultra-cool, exciting departure from the traditional superhero format. It not only combined cutting edge Hong Kong-style action with classic comic book storytelling, heroism, and comedy, it also featured a hero with a philosophical side.
"I don’t read a lot of comic books," says Chang, "but this one was different. The spiritual aspect of the story greatly appealed to me."
While the groundwork was there in the comic, the story needed a lot of development before it would become a screenplay. But the producers knew the material would provide an interesting vehicle for their long-time friend and star of many of their early movies, Chow Yun-Fat. Chang and Woo enlisted screenwriters Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris to write the screenplay.
"Terence invited Ethan and I out to dinner with him, John, and Chow Yun-Fat," says Voris. "They pulled out this comic book called Bulletproof Monk and said, ‘We have this story, we need it developed, and by the way, what do you think of Chow Yun-Fat as the Bulletproof Monk?’ Since we’d seen every movie Yun-Fat had ever been in, we thought it was a great idea. To be given the opportunity to write a script for a film with Chow Yun-Fat in the leading role – there was obviously no way we could say no."
Chang and Woo gave the writers two issues of the comic book, and Reiff and Voris got to work. Reiff says, "We went back to our office, read them, and thought they were cool, but the story was just coming together in those two issues. There was a setup, but no real ending. Also, the character of the Bulletproof Monk is not really in the comic book, he’s more of a legendary story, which presented a problem since Yun-Fat was supposed to be in the movie. We decided to use the material as a springboard, and eventually came up with a draft that John and Terence really liked."
Chang acknowledges the story in the movie is vastly different from the story in the comic. "I told the writers that they should keep the philosophy of the original material," he says, "but that first and foremost, Bulletproof Monk should be a fun, action-adventure movie about the hero in all of us. The writers totally got it."
Producer Charles Roven read one of the early drafts of the screenplay and was also instantly attracted to the project. "The screenplay definitely connected with me," says Roven. "What immediately hit me was that this film was a fabulous cross between a contemporary Western buddy comedy and a kind of Eastern philosophical epic. It had wonderful aspects of time, spirituality and magic, but also had a lot of humorous and exciting moments. I was very happy when John and Terence invited me to be part of the process of making the movie."
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