Hitman Agent 47: no Singaporeans in the cast list?

Hello everyone! A lot of fuss has been made in the Singapore media about the Hollywood movie Hitman: Agent 47 which was partly filmed in Singapore (along with Germany). Okay, it may be a good plug for the Singapore tourism board and many of you made a big deal about the scene with many Comfort taxis. I'm sure you've seen the trailer. But hasn't anyone asked the all important question: why didn't any Singaporean actors feature in the cast list?  Shouldn't a major Hollywood production coming to Singapore be a golden opportunity for any aspiring Singaporean actor?

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The problem lies with the fact that the film was produced by American companies: Twentieth Century Fox and TSG Entertainment. What this means is that all executive decisions about the casting would have been made in America, long before the first film crew arrives in Singapore. In any case, this isn't a film about Americans in Singapore - Singapore was simply a nice location because of the futuristic skyline. If you were to read the synopsis of the film, there isn't any mention about Singapore at all. Heck, if all they wanted was a city with a futuristic skyline, they could have picked one of many Asian or Middle Eastern cities. The lead characters are mostly all white and whilst I'm sure it's a good movie, I'm sure the lack of any Singaporean actors in the film would have left many Singaporeans quite disappointed - but I imagine this must have been most frustrating for Singaporean actors. 

Now the last time this happened was when the film Rogue Trader (about how Nick Leeson made Barings Bank collapse) was shot mostly in Singapore, featuring Ewan McGregor as Nick Leeson. This was filmed way back in 1998 (when I was a student). There were some nice Singaporean roles in the script - but how many were actually played by local Singaporeans? There was an Irene Ng in the cast list: her credits are mostly British, so one can assume that she must be UK-based. I spot another two familiar names: Tom Wu and Daniel York, two UK based actors. Tom's parents are from Hong Kong whilst Daniel isn't even completely Chinese - he is half Chinese half English, yet the casting directors would rather cast a Eurasian actor to play the part of a Singaporean Chinese rather than actually try to find an authentic Singaporean-Chinese actor from Singapore. The Eurasian guy doesn't even look Chinese to begin with.

Local actors Ivan Heng and Lim Kay Siu appeared on the screen for mere seconds as a bartender and a policeman - it was unreal as these two guys would have probably been able to make such a great contribution to the film but they were sidelined from the whole casting process because they were not based in the UK then. I swear it was painful watching Tom try to speak Singlish - Tom's British and he doesn't get Singlish at all. Whilst his Cantonese may be totally fluent, his attempts at speaking Singlish can only be described as painful to my ears. Did no one even try to correct him or did they not even care how wrong that sounded? If you are an actor in Singapore, I'm afraid this is something you have to get used to. Even if big budget American or British films do show up in Singapore, you would be lucky to even get a tiny part as all the major parts would have already been cast in pre-production several time zones away. If you want a shot at the big roles, then you have to be based somewhere like Hollywood, New York, London and possibly Hong Kong - but not Singapore. Those are where the major studios are based and where the important casting decisions will be made. And when was the last time a Singaporean film became an international big hit? No, that's never happened. And unfortunately, it probably never will.

Whilst the actors in Singapore may have missed out, at least the local production companies may have had some interesting work. After all, much of the crew of Hitman Agent 47 would have been local - it wouldn't make any sense to fly an entire crew down from Hollywood to Singapore just for the shoot. However, the key decision makers would still be American. So for example, the costume designers who create the look for the characters would be American, but during the shoot, the costume assistant who would be responsible for getting all the various bits and pieces ready would be Singaporean. If you are a young person looking to gain some valuable work experience in the film industry, this would have been a golden opportunity to get some kind of internship. But if you were a senior expert in the industry, then you may be frustrated at the fact that only very junior roles would be on offer for Singaporeans on this project. Would you be prepared to eat humble pie and work as a junior assistant on this big Hollywood project?

Is this all bad news? Not necessarily so. Allow me to talk about Prague, which has managed to make itself the uncanny film mecca of Europe. Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, a small country with a population of 10.5 million. Typically, you would expect a country of this size to sustain a small film and TV industry, serving primarily the local population with local language content. However, since the 1990s, Prague has managed to attract many films companies from around the world to come and take advantage of the relatively cheap costs of production in the Czech Republic, coupled with a picturesque city . The film crews in Prague are multilingual and highly trained, so the film and TV industry in Prague is actually famous not just in Europe but throughout the world.

Can Singapore turn itself into another Prague and be the film production capital of the East? I doubt it somehow. Prague had some significant advantages back in the 1990s - I remember visiting Prague in 1998 when everything was still ridiculously cheap. Prices have gone up significantly since, but it is still a lot cheaper to organize a film shoot in Prague than say in Hamburg, Oslo or London. Singapore on the other hand, is one of the most expensive cities in Asia. A city like Manila or Kuala Lumpur will have significant cost advantages over Singapore. Maybe a big budget Hollywood production would have no problems paying for a shoot in Singapore, but a smaller budget production would probably pick a cheaper Asian city like Bangkok or Jakarta. I have no doubt the film crews in Singapore are highly trained and the local studios are equipped with the best equipment - but the very high costs would be the fundamental problem for Singapore to even try to compete with other Asian cities: Singapore is just way more expensive.

Probably one of the most expensive cities to make a movie in Asia.

So are we likely to see more Hollywood film studios come to Singapore to make more films soon? I doubt it somehow. It seems unlikely given that Singapore doesn't quite have that mystical East Asian city feel to it (unlike say Seoul, Bangkok or Tokyo) - it is uber-modern and so very Western, which is probably why it was selected for the backdrop of Hitman Agent 47. In the meantime, Singaporean actors have to either settle for being a big fish in a small pond or taking the brave step to become a tiny fish in the big ocean by leaving for either China, America or the UK. Ah well, you can at least count of the Amazing Race making a stop in Singapore every few seasons - clearly, they love Singapore and that is great publicity for the Singapore Tourist Board.

That's it from me on this.Feel free to leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!