Francis Ng, a bounty killer?
Yu Nan, his partner
Four Marshals ( 四大名捕): two directors, one title, made famous by a martial arts novel written by Wen Rui’an .
Gordon Chan and Gao Qun Shu (co-director of The Message) are contending for the use of the title 四大名捕. Gordon Chan has acquired adaptation rights to the wuxia novel and wants to make a costume martial arts (film?) series based on the novel. Gao Qun Shu has already been filming a modern tale in Gansu under the same title but the story is unrelated to the novel.
In Gao Qun Shu’s film, the story is about four police and a fugitive. Casting includes Duan Yihong, Ni Dahong, Wu Jing (replacing Wang Baoqiang, though rumors persist that he may be filming secretly), Zhang Li, Francis Ng ,Charlie Yeung (Francis’ girlfriend), Yu Nan, (Xinhua) (2) (ifeng) HD slide show (4) (Sina.com) Francis and Yu Nan play world weary bounty killers who look to retire in Gansu after one last expedition. His favorite song is The Eagles’ Hotel California.
Xia Yu, a fugitive
Filming in Gansu
(Sina.com)
Director Billy Chung, Cherrie Ying (2nd left), Wang Zi (left) promote New Year’s action film Wu Lin Xiao Zhuan (lit.Martial Arts Comedy).
The film is a joint Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan venture. (Sina) (Xinhua)
Jaycee Chan
Mulan cast and crew become honorary citizens of Mulan’s hometown Shangqiu, Henan Province. The crew also donated movie props to the city. (Sina)
The Robbers (lit.Tang Dynasty Brothers)
A martial arts comedy starring Hu Jun and Jiang Wu opens November 20 kicks off the New Year early. It has been positively received at the Shanghai and Pusan International Film Festivals. (Sina)
Radish Warrior successfully opened the weekend with $8.7M at the box office (Sina)
Love At Seventh Sight (lit.Seven Days To Fall in Love With You)
Alfred Cheung’s romantic comedy opens Nov. 3 and features Mike He and Li Xiaolu (Sina)
CRI: Director Zhang Yimou Tells “Amazing Tales” in Color
The Message has surpassed $220M at that box office and the prequel is set to begin filming next summer. (Sina)
Chinese movie-makers keep faith with martial arts
The Chinese film industry is hoping a little more martial arts magic will woo international audiences over the next 12 months with two productions set to take familiar stories one step further.
First up comes the US$12 million (eight million euro) budgetedThe Storm Warriors, directed by Hong Kong-based twins Oxide and Danny Pang, and set to make its film industry premiere at next month’s American Film Market (http://www.ifta-online.org/) as they try to sell it to the world.
The film is taken from the wildly successful Hong Kong comic series Fung Wan (Wind and Cloud), by Ma Wing-shing, which also inspired the Andrew Lau-directed The Stormriders (1998).
That film starred Asian idols Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng, and raked in HK$42 million (3.6 million euros) from the local box office that year. It still ranks as Hong Kong cinema’s 12th all-time top earner.
The Pangs — who built an international reputation thanks to the success of horror film such as The Eye (2002) — say they have tried to reinvent the martial arts genre with their production, reuniting Kwok and Cheng and mixing live action and cutting-edge computer generated imagery.
They also claim the story should stand on its own and not be thought of as a sequel, even thought it features the same characters.
The same line is being taken by the people behind the US$29 million (19 million euro) budgeted Shaolin Temple - which shares the same name as the 1982 film that launched the career of martial arts star Jet Li, and is obviously set around the same legendary martial arts school.
The film is set to star box office draws Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Nicolas Tse — alongside more than 1,000 monks from the temple.
The film starring Li took in 100 million yuan (9.7 million euros) in China and saw the Shaolin monks start to take their martial arts skills on international tours, a trend which continues today.
But director Benny Chan — who made the award-winning New Police Story (2004) with Chan — told Chinese media that while his production shares a number of things in common with Li’s film, he plans to move the story of the monastery forward from the seventh century to the early 20th century.
Shaolin Temple will have its fight scenes choreographed by Hong Kong’s Corey Yuen (Red Cliff, X-Men) and is set for an end-of-2010 release. (Independent.co.uk)[site flagged for trojan virus]
