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Drive

Drive is the first real Hong Kong-style action picture created in the US. Written by Scott Phillips and directed by Steve Wang, Drive mixes offbeat comedy with some of the most spectacular high-energy fight scenes ever shot outside of Asia.

The movie follows Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos), whose employers at Hong Kong's Leung Corporation have implanted in his chest a bio-energy module that enhances his physical abilities. Toby has escaped from the Leung Corporation's control and is making his way to Los Angeles, where a competing company has offered to remove the implant and give him his life back.

After arriving in San Francisco, Toby encounters -- and, in desparation, kidnaps -- Malik Brodie (Kadeem Hardison), who has the means to get him to Los Angeles. Following close behind are professional assassins and junk-culture connoisseurs Vic Madison (John Pyper-Ferguson) and The Hedgehog (Tracey Walter), who are pursuing Toby in the employ of the Leung Corporation's president, Mr. Lau (James Shigeta).

After experiencing firsthand the life-threatening situation Toby finds himself in, Malik volunteers to drive Toby to Los Angeles. When problems with Malik's car force them to seek shelter, they meet the underaged Teen Queen-slash-motel operator Deliverance Bodine (Brittany Murphy), who finds their plight just a little bit too exciting and romantic for the fugitives' tastes.

Toby and Malik's clashes with Vic and the Hedgehog build up to a climactic hands-on battle at at the retro-futuristic Apollo 14 Bar & Grill, where they finally come face-to-face with Toby's bio-enchanced Leung Corporation successor -- The Advanced Model (Masaya Kato) -- for an explosive finish.

About This Site

I've looked a few times over the past couple of years, but I've never been able to find anything resembling a Drive fan site out there. (Maybe that's because it's next to impossible to use a search engine on the word "drive" and come up with a meaningful result, and we're all doomed to live on our own little islands in the big nasty net ocean, never communicating with each other until we're bleached bones on the beach.) So...here's one!

I'm putting together this site 'cause I've been on the fringes of Drive from the start. I've known Scott Phillips, who wrote the film, since the mid-1980s. Watching the process of getting Drive made was half fun and half hellacious pain. Never will I ever doubt even the nastiest stories about what working in Hollywood is like. But even the mangled final release version is an entertaining action movie that I love watching -- even though you can't see my bit part playing the VR game anywhere, even in the original director's cut! (Fellow Rat Bastard Devin O'Leary fares a hair better, walking by with Scott in the background of one shot in the Apollo 14.)

If anyone has photos, anecdotes, links to reviews, or any other relevant content for the site, please let me know at lazlo@studio-nibble.com and I'll post 'em here.

"...what's that, Walter? Pancreatic Cancer?! You've just saved the life of the President's son!"


Copyright 2001, Ernie Longmire (sn-lazlo/at/studio-nibble.com) except as noted.
Page Updated Saturday, May 15, 2004 8:41 PM