It's about more than just a Paycheck, as I found out interviewing John Woo about his latest.

Bay Guardian: The action scenes in Paycheck seemed more realistic than we're used to seeing from you.

John Woo: Yeah. That was the intention. I wanted to make the film more like a human drama. The character of Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is not a superhero. He's just a computer engineer, and he tries to find a way to survive without becoming a murderer. Based on that, the action should look more realistic. I didn't want to go too over the top. I wanted to make the film more suspenseful, like Hitchcock, like when Ben is chased by the train.

BG: Wasn't Paycheck originally supposed to be a massive science fiction film like Total Recall?

JW: Yeah. We changed it for two reasons. One was because of the budget. It was going to be a very futuristic movie with a lot of computer graphics. On the other hand, after I read the original short story of "Paycheck," I felt that Philip K. Dick's characters were very human. Like when I saw Blade Runner, I cried so hard when Rutger Hauer died. So I felt we should cut down 80 percent of the sci-fi and put the focus on human drama. I also expanded the love story and tried to give the rest of the film a more romantic sensibility.

BG: Back in Hong Kong, you sometimes used to write your own scripts.

JW: I will again, but I need to learn more first. For instance, there are two projects I'm working on now. I wrote and developed the story and hired a writer to do the scripts. I think I've got to take it one step at a time. One is an action-musical-gangster movie called The Dancer. It's a true story about this guy in the 1930s who was a tough guy but also a great dancer. It's going to be a combination of The Killer and Cabaret. The other is a remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's Red Circle. That's one of my favorite all-time movies.

BG: Do you find yourself becoming less and less interested in the action genre as times goes on?

JW: Well, sometimes I would like to try making a pure drama. Sometimes I want to maintain my own style. But don't worry, I'll never give up using two guns.