HOLLYWOOD-Based Filipino actor-director Ace Cruz hopes to get US pop star Vanessa Hudgens to star in his next movie.

?I?m working on a script with her in mind,? Ace told Inquirer. His next project, ?Wishing Well,? will be shot on Boracay Island, Aklan. ?I plan to stay there for three months to write the script.?

Hudgens, whose mother is a Filipina, is the star of the highly successful ?High School Musical? series. Cruz?s latest film, ?Outrage,? won the 2009 Best Sci-Fi Picture award at the Action on Film (AOF) International Festival in Pasadena, California. It was also screened at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival in France.

Ace is in town to promote ?Outrage,? about a vacation gone wrong for friends in the remote woods of Northern Georgia. Lead star Michael Madsen (?Free Willy,? ?Reservoir Dogs,? ?Kill Bill,? ?Sin City?) is scheduled to attend the movie premiere tomorrow at the SM Mega Mall Cinema 10 in Mandaluyong City.

?The reaction to ?Outrage? in Cannes was overwhelming. I got a lot of [distribution] offers. My film distribution company, Gorilla Pictures, is handling that,? said Cruz. ?Outrage? will have a week-long run in Hollywood starting Sept. 3. It will be available on video starting Sept. 14.

Raised in US

Cruz immigrated to the US when he was 3. He came back in 1993 and became a contract artist of Viva Artist Agency. In 1996, he left again to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California. That same year, he made his first movie, ?Gangstaz,? which stars Judy Ann Santos, Richard Bonnin and Raymond Bagatsing. His other films include ?Urban Task Force,? ?Psychotic? (with Sam Jones of ?Flash Gordon?), ?Fate? (with Lee Majors of ?Six Million Dollar Man?), ?Last Chance? (co-starring Todd Bridges), and ?The Golem.?

Don?t you find it hard to act, direct and produce a film all at the same time?

A psychologist once said not everybody could do what I do. Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen and Kevin Costner do it. I?m following in their footsteps.

What else did the psychologist say?

He said I had amazing focus. When I?m the producer, I think numbers, locations, negotiations. [When] my line producer comes to assume that role, I focus on directing, getting the right shots, finding the perfect angle ? When I am the actor, I don?t let [production problems] things get to me?makeup artists [bickering] with lights men, the wardrobe staff fighting with the camera guys. My level of concentration stays high.

Have you experienced racial discrimination in Hollywood?

Hollywood is multi-racial; I encounter more of that outside Hollywood, like when I was shooting in Atlanta, where you?re either black or white. There are very few Asians. But I create my own destiny. I don?t wait for my dreams to be fulfilled; I make it happen. I don?t experience racial discrimination partly because, as producer, I?m my own boss.

Who do you look up to among Asian directors?

John Woo. I met him when I was in USC Film School. He told me how he started?when he was in China, he had no money to go to film school. He stole all the film books in the library and he hung out with stunt people.

What advice can you give to aspiring Filipino filmmakers who want to make it big abroad?

I suggest they visit film markets and understand what foreign audiences are interested in. Monitor DVD blockbusters. See what people are buying.