Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones actors on starring in Cold War 1994, exploring Hong Kong

When the Hong Kong political crime thriller Cold War was released in 2012, it arguably shook up the market.

Here was a big-budget actioner helmed by two industry veterans – Longman Leung Lok-man and Sunny Luk Kim-ching – making their directing debut, and headlined by a cast of some of Hong Kong’s biggest names such as Tony Leung Ka-fai, Aaron Kwok Fu-shing and Andy Lau Tak-wah.

But if the directors were still unrecognisable, the film’s producer was not. Bill Kong Chi-keung, known for producing hits such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and A Guilty Conscience (2023), is a name that gets things going and deals done.

Not surprisingly, when actors Hugh Bonneville, known for Downton Abbey, and Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen were first approached about the possibility of appearing in a prequel, Cold War 1994 – the third film in the franchise, after Cold War 2 (2016) – Kong’s role caught their attention.