Maggie Q appears in behind-the-scenes pics from a pre-production trailer shoot for Finale.

Kung Fu Cinema goes behind the scenes on the forthcoming martial arts and action drama from Naked Weapon and Mission: Impossible 3 star Maggie Q with a detailed look at its development.

In 1973, Warner Brothers, the studio of Humphrey Bogart and Clint Eastwood, decided that a little Chinese dude named Bruce Lee might have a crack at the international market. Since then, Hollywood has gone Hong Kong to generate east-meets-west action, with a mixed bagof results. You're as likely to get a Matrix Revolutions as a Matrix, a Tuxedo as a Rush Hour. This year, Asian action went in a different direction, as German director Rouchdi Guedria decided that the next great center of martial arts thrillers would be the city of Cologne.

The concept for Finale was conceived and executed by Rouchdi and his longtime partner Tabea Salewski. "The 1966 World Cup Final is this legendary football match," Rouchdi observes. "Everyone of the right age in Germany, and everyone in England, I think, remembers that match. The concept started with the idea of setting a thriller within the 90 minutes of the match, and then relating the commentator's coverage of the match to what was happening in the story."

Rouchdi and Tabea's script tells the story of Dorst, a burned out former criminal operating in Cold War Germany. His one shot at redemption dies when his big score goes sour, and the girl he loves is gunned down. For the role of Dorst, the director approached Turkish-German actor Mehmet Kurtulus. Mehmet has starred in many European films, and made his international debut in Equilibrium. Besides being an acclaimed performer, Mehmet is also an award-winning producer, and was so inspired by the material that he offered to help put Finale together.

"The role of Dorst is a great part that any actor would respond to," says Mehmet, "but I could see so much potential in the film as a whole. I told Rouchdi I was totally committed to getting Finale made, and would even spend my own money to help the development process."

In Finale, a Triad chief gives Dorst the duration of the cup final (which refers to the title) to locate and execute an Italian mafia boss. To assist him, she assigns her most formidable weapon, a female assassin named Kakudo. Kakudo's mission is to fight at Dorst's side until the end of the match, and then to kill him. With Dorst's target still alive, the match goes into extra time.

"It was easy to write the most amazing Asian lady assassin in the world," remembers Rouchdi. "Finding her was another matter!"

The Finale team started watching every femme fatale Hong Kong actioner they could find, until they saw Naked Weapon. This Ching Siu-tung-directed exploitation film had done great business as a German DVD release and both Rouchdi and Tabea fell in love with its leading lady, Maggie Q.

"We knew she was perfect," remembers Rouchdi, "but, at this stage, I wasn't a known director. We weren't fully financed and we only had a rough translation of the first draft script, so I didn't think we stood much chance with Maggie!"

dude: 男人，家伙

mixed bag: 雜集，混合體，大雜燴

gun down: 槍殺

femme fatale: 美女，蕩婦，女妖精

known: 出名的