Reaping Hollywood success, Peter Wong seeks to contribute to local industry

While many local filmmakers have won awards from festivals around the globe, Peter Wong prefers to let his work speak for itself.

His movie “Clemency” starring Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff and Danielle Brooks won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2019.

The Ace Pictures Sdn Bhd president has worn many hats over the years in the entertainment industry. He has been a graphic artist, music director, music producer, editor, director and film producer.

During an interview with Malaysiakini, Wong described himself as a person who did not have much confidence and did not know how far he could go during the early part of his career.

“I would call myself a very cautious person. To be honest, I was inspired by Lim Kok Wing when I worked with him back in the day.

“It was amazing how he rebranded himself from an ad guy to an education guy and eventually, as a businessperson, opening campuses around the world,” he said.

As a design graduate, Wong took small steps by doing graphic design, multimedia and web-related work.

“When I saw an opportunity to go one step further, I took the plunge,” he shared.

Wong started off making music for various productions.

“I always loved movies when I was young. In college, when I was studying graphics, we were once assigned to come up with mock-up promotional materials for a film.”

The film could be something already released or an imaginary creation.

“So I created my ‘film’ and made promotional posters for it. I loved how, as a graphic design student, I ended up doing a lot of other stuff,“ he added.

Wong wrote down his film idea for the college project. He consulted a friend over the story and she helped him turn it into a screenplay.

“That is how I jump-started my career. My producer took the script and went to the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) where we got a small grant. I then directed my first feature ‘The Spiral’. All that took 14 years to realise,” he said.

Taking it overseas

Wong said “The Spiral”, which was released in 2016, suffered delays and was difficult to produce because of the small budget.

He admitted he was overly ambitious and made many mistakes as a first-time director.

“It came to a point when it was almost not completed. It took me two years to fix my mistakes. When it first came out locally, it was critically panned. I was heartbroken.

“Then I felt why not send it overseas? Maybe the Western audience would understand it better.“

Wong was well aware that it would not be up to mark for top-tier festivals such as Cannes, but he did not want to submit it to a lesser festival just to get media attention.

“So I ended up submitting it to the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Arizona and it was accepted,” he said.

At the festival, he spoke to the festival director because he was curious to know why it was accepted.

“I was nervous because it wasn’t accepted by the Malaysian audience. The festival director said that he understood what I was trying to do and they decided to overlook my weaknesses.

“In my submission, I mentioned I was a first-time director and they acknowledged that,” he added.

After Wong finished making “The Spiral”, he was approached by Ace Group, who wanted him to join the company and run their new subsidiary.

“During that time, I fixed my mistakes in ‘The Spiral’ and started venturing overseas looking for projects and talking to people in Hollywood.”

Finding success

In 2017, he joined Ace Pictures as a producer-financier. He also obtained a Producers Guild of America mark after producing “Measure of Revenge” starring Academy Award winners Melissa Leo and Bella Thorne.

In 2019, the movie he produced with Ace Pictures, “Clemency”, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Wong said the success of “Clemency” made him believe he could make movies.

His most recent acclaimed work as a producer is “Come Away” (2020), which starred David Oyelowo, Angelina Jolie, and Michael Caine.

“Once I went to Hollywood and started talking to people there, I realised that the skills I was trying to hone would be recognised in the West.

“Nevertheless, working with these famous people does make me nervous.

”But at the end of the day, it is not about the glamour. It is still a job, it is a commitment, and it is all about passion,” he explained.

Wong said he and his colleagues did try to bring back the Hollywood culture of producing films in Malaysia.

“But what happened consequently was disheartening. We get comments like ‘You can do that because you have money’ or ‘You only have experience doing international films but no experience doing local films’.”

Other than being ignored, he said they have never been invited for any dialogue with Finas to improve the local film industry.

Ace Pictures has a few other projects in the works.

“We have about 15 titles right now and most of them are in search of financiers. In total, we have over 30 intellectual properties, but half of it is still in development with our counterparts in Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, US, Portugal, UK and Italy.”

Much more to learn

One would think that because Wong is multifaceted, that would help open more doors.

“Regardless of how much knowledge and skill I have, it is still a struggle for people to accept and believe in you.

“When opportunities arose, I went out to make my point and contribute to the project to solve a problem, but not as an egotistical trip, and in that way, respect was earned.

“But I am lucky to be blessed with these skills to solve so many problems we face during production, and I believe that is the key value we can bring to international productions,” he said.

“Secondly, I have been in the movie business for over 20 years now, and it was an accumulation of self-development and a hunger for knowledge and a willingness to listen to advice.

“Even now, I still think there is so much more to learn and I will not stop learning,” he added.

While he may be busy as a producer, Wong still has films that he is planning to direct.

The first is “Absolution”, a supernatural thriller that he co-wrote and the second is “Time To Leave”, a supernatural drama.

On who he admires as a filmmaker, he recalled how in 2006 he saw director David Lynch’s movie “Blue Velvet”.

“What attracted me to the story was the hidden symbols and hidden imagery in it. In the opening, it showed a beautiful and serene Los Angeles and then the camera pans down to show bugs and things underground.”

Wong checked online to find out why the movie was presented that way and learned that the director was trying to say things can be beautiful on the outside but rotten on the inside.

“That inspired me to look at films differently. To see what hidden messages each film has.“

Wong loves Lynch’s artistic approach, which gets his audience to discuss what they have watched.

He also admires James Cameron, who is capable of both satisfying his audience and making tons of money, and Malaysian-born James Wan, who has made successful films with uncomplicated storylines.

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