Father Geek reporting in with this week's edition of Asia-AICN. I'll cut short my intro because I'm taking off to see FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING at a local press screening. It will be my second veiwing of this outstanding motion picture epic, Click here for my reaction to the first. There is lots of coolness in this Thursday's report so make sure to check it all out. Now on to Darius25, pigmon and AccSpy...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you had a fine week. We have a moderately-sized column for you this week with quite a bit of info, including news on “Excuse Me”, Boney Kapoor’s next film with both Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, “Perfect Match”, Michelle Yeoh’s upcoming films, “Shurayaki Hime (Princess Shurayaki)”, director Ryuhei Kitamura’s “Alive” and the results of Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards. We also have some stills from “Sandhya”, “Perfect Match” and a really cool poster from “Running Out of Time 2”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
Hey all, hope you had a fine week. We have a moderately-sized column for you this week with quite a bit of info, including news on “Excuse Me”, Boney Kapoor’s next film with both Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, “Perfect Match”, Michelle Yeoh’s upcoming films, “Shurayaki Hime (Princess Shurayaki)”, director Ryuhei Kitamura’s “Alive” and the results of Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards. We also have some stills from “Sandhya”, “Perfect Match” and a really cool poster from “Running Out of Time 2”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
We also have some stills from “Sandhya”, “Perfect Match” and a really cool poster from “Running Out of Time 2”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
- Director N. Chandra is already planning to make a sequel to “Style”, even before the new film hits the theatre. Chandra is reportedly very happy with how the film worked out and has decided to sign the four leads (all newcomers) yet again, should the film hit big time. He is in the process of writing the sequel, titled “Excuse Me”, and says that it should hit theatres late next year. “Style” is slated to release on Dec. 21 (but that could change).
- Producer Boney Kapoor has signed director Satish Kaushik for an upcoming production. Nothing is set as of yet, but the producer is keen on signing the father-son duo of Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan for the film. Knowing Kapoor is producing the project, you might as well expect one of his brothers (Anil or Sanjay) to participate as well. Meanwhile, the producer’s latest film, “Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche (Someone Ask My Heart)”, will FINALLY be releasing on Dec. 28. The film marks the acting debut of Esha Deol and also stars Aaftab Shivdasani, Jaya Bachchan, and Sanjay Kapoor.
- Actress Namrata Shirodhkar will replace Mahima Choudhary for director Vivek Vaswani’s “Dil Vil Pyar Vyar (Heart and Love), due to a scheduling conflict. The film, which uses old Bollywood songs in a tribute to music director R. D. Burman, also stars R. Madhavan, Jimmy Shergill, and Juhi Chawla. It will be released next fall.
- Some new stills were released from Jackie Shroff’s next home-production, “Sandhya”. The psychological thriller, being directed by Sangeeth Sivan, stars Raveena Tandon as the title character, along with Jackie, Ashutosh Rana, and Javed Jaffrey. Shooting has wrapped on the project and it is expected to release this February.
Here’s a pic of Raveena Tandon, playing a woman mistakenly put in a mental asylum: Just Go Here
Jackie Shroff, playing the main antagonist here (looking pretty evil): Click Here Now
A pic of both Raveena and Jackie: Click Right Here
CHINA / HK
Here’s the weekly report from “AccSpy”:
- Another Chinese New Year comedy started shooting in Beijing last week, titled "Perfect Match (working title)". The film is being directed by Jeff Lau, produced by Wong Kar-wai and stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Faye Wong, Vikki Zhao with Zhang Zhun from CTHD replacing Ekin Cheng as the young emperor. The film is adapted from a classic folk tale dealing with switched identities. This is the first time Faye Wong’s starring in a comedy and will play a tomboyish princess. Here's a look at the shooting ceremony of the period comedy.
Director Jeff Lau (second from the left), Tony Leung, Faye Wong and Wong Kar-wai (in sunglasses as usual): Click Now
This marks the first time of the two stars together on screen since "Chungking Express" (Faye Wong and Leung Chiu-wai): Click Here
Faye's in a costume and Tony is not: Click
- Director Teddy Chan, with such a strong filmography like "Purple Storm" and "The Accidental Spy", will next direct a big-budget period action flick literally titled "The City in October", starring Sammo Hung, Tony Leung KAR-FAI and Zhang Zhun. The story takes place in late 19th century when Chinese folk hero Zuen Yi Zen, aka the father of China, visited Hong Kong and focuses on the six masked heroes called upon to protect him from a would-be assassination.
- In a recent press conference in Shanghai, Michelle Yeoh confirmed that her next film after "The Touch" will be the live action adaptation of the classic folk story "Mulan". Michelle will again produce the flick. She also mentioned the possibility of a cameo in "Bond 20". She’s arranging time for the role and chances are she will be back since the producers only require two days shooting for her appearance.
- HK productions heavily swept this year's Taiwan Golden Horse Awards. The big winners are two HK productions dealing with the subjects about people from Mainland China. Fruit Chan's "Durian, Durian" won four trophies including Best Picture and Best Actress for Qin Haliu, and also won Best Newcomer at the same night. Stanley Kwan grabbed Best Director for his 11 times nominated and four-awards winning "Lan Yu". Liu Ye, who is in fact the classmate of Qin Haliu in drama college back in Beijing, won Best Actor for his portrayal of a gay student union protester character in "Lan Yu". HK actor Patrick Tam (from "Legend of Zu") scored Best Supporting Actor award with his powerful performance as a washed up agent in "Born Wild". "Shaolin Soccer" scored one trophy in the visual effects category. Ching Siu Tung won Best Fight Choreography, not for "Shaolin Soccer", but for his work in "My School Mate, The Barbarian". "Legend of Zu" also won two awards including Best Air Direction and Best Costume.
- Here’s the supercool poster to Johnnie To’s “Running Out of Time 2” with Lau Ching-wan on the trail of Ekin Cheng this time around: Click to See
- "In the Name of Heroes" (aka “Avenging Fist”), initially the live-action Tekken movie, debuted at the no.1 place last weekend in HK, but with a worse than expected $2.8 millions grossing. Last week's no.1 film, "Spy Game", fell to no.2, while four other films debuted at no.3 to no.6, including both "Training Day" and Dino Wong and Anita Mui's karaoke comedy "Let's Sing Along". Both films debuted at no.3 with an identical $0.55 million grossing. Director Alan Mak's romantic thriller "Stolen Love", starring Rain Lee and newcomer Lam Fung, debuted at no.5 and "Original Sin" entered the market at sixth place.
JAPAN
Here’s the latest report from “Pigmon”:
- Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz will be arriving in Tokyo for the Japanese premiere of “Vanilla Sky” on December 14th. Cruise has agreed to participate in a interview with actress Rei Kikukawa for the NHK English-language channel. Kikukawa is dying to appear in “Memoirs of Geisha” and is hoping for Cruise to bring the subject up with Steven Spielberg (good luck)…
- Director Shinsuke Sato’s “Shurayaki Hime (Princess Shurayaki)” will be releasing on December 15th. The hyper-violent martial arts film is said to feature lots of cool wire action and Japanese sword fight. DonnieYen joined onboard after “Blade 2” to direct the action sequences. US and Korean audiences will get to watch this film sometime next year.
- After the success of “Versus”, director Ryuhei Kitamura’s next film will be “Alive”. The film has nearly wrapped shooting and the trailer shows some really cool action scenes. The story is said to take place in a futuristic prison with some really great set designs. The film will be in Japanese theatres next year.
- The first Harry Potter film is breaking all sorts of box-office records in Japan. It has already broken the first nine-days’ collection records, collecting about $40 million US. The previous nine-day record was held by Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”, which collected $36 million during the same time period.
