Ford, Woo Join Forces

March 22 -- Hong Kong director John Woo has already used his high-wattage action know-how to make John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, and Tom Cruise look good. Now the director behind Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2 is teaming up with old-school action guy Harrison Ford.

Warner Bros. is shelling out an upfront fee of $750,000 to Andrew Marlowe, who wrote Ford's last bona fide action hit, Air Force One, Variety reports.

Marlowe, who also wrote the special-effects-driven flicks Hollow Man and End of Days, may be able to bump that payday up to seven figures; if the film gets made, that is.

Ford, who returns to action mode with the Russian sub drama K:19, must first approve the script. Cold War-era drama K:19, which co-stars Liam Neeson, is set for release sometime in 2002.

Nothing more is known about the Warner Bros. project at this time. Still, call us crazy, but since Woo's involved, we predict there'll be a plethora of his trademark motifs: Mexican standoffs (or should that be Hong Kong standoffs?), two-fisted gunplay, and, however implausible it's become, lots of doves.

Woo is now in post-production on the World War II film Windtalkers, which stars Cage and Christian Slater.