Cool News
Asia-AICN: TheMartyr; Highbinders; Aitbaar; TheTouch; ChineseConnection; Lagaan; and Happy Chinese New Year!
HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!!! Valentines Day Too!!! Father Geek here with AccSpy in Hong Kong and Darius25 with all the Bollywood news wishing you the best on whatever Holiday you may be celebrating today. As usual on Thursdays we have our Asia-AICN Column to keep you company and inform you of some of the latest news out of the East. But before we get to their report here's some info that came directly to the Geek Headquarters Compound here in Austin, Texas...
Just thought i'd let you know that Toshihiro Kawamoto & Ken Akamatsu will be attending the Anime Central 2002 convention in Chicago, April 19th-21st.
Toshihiro Kawamoto
Toshihiro Kawamoto will be best known to US anime fans for his character designs on "Cowboy Bebop" and "Golden Boy." However, he also worked as animation supervisor for the animation for the "Ghost in the Shell" Playstation Game opening, and as the character designer on "Gundam 0083," and "08th MS Team," as well as animator on numerous other animations. This is Mr. Kawamoto's first appearance at Anime Central.
Ken Akamatsu
Ken Akamatsu is best known to anime and manga fans as the creator and manga artist of "Love Hina." The manga which was published in Kodansha's weekly comic magazine, "Weekly Shounen Magajin," has 14 volumes and was made into avery popular anime series. His other major work is the manga series, "AI ga Tomaranai" ('Can't stop the LOVE'). He has also recently put out a special edition of his Love Hina comic, entitled "IroHina" ('SexyHina'). This is his first appearance at a North American Anime Convention.
More info on Anime Central can be found at Their Website by just clicking here
Gavigan
Ol' Father Geek back just long enough to say: "Here's the regular report...
Asia-AICN
By Darius25, with AccSpy...
Happy Chinese New Year everybody!! I hope you’re enjoying the holidays by eating lots of great food, receiving plenty of cash, and spending some of it on some fabulous movies. We have a decently-packed column for you this week, with info on direct Aditya Chopra’s next film, Sunny Deol’s “Shaheed (The Martyr)”, director Vikram Bhatt’s upcoming films, the Hollywood remake of “The Chinese Connection (aka Fists of Fury)”, “The Touch”, “The Highbinders”, and the “Fat Choi Spirit”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
By Darius25, with AccSpy...
Happy Chinese New Year everybody!! I hope you’re enjoying the holidays by eating lots of great food, receiving plenty of cash, and spending some of it on some fabulous movies. We have a decently-packed column for you this week, with info on direct Aditya Chopra’s next film, Sunny Deol’s “Shaheed (The Martyr)”, director Vikram Bhatt’s upcoming films, the Hollywood remake of “The Chinese Connection (aka Fists of Fury)”, “The Touch”, “The Highbinders”, and the “Fat Choi Spirit”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
I hope you’re enjoying the holidays by eating lots of great food, receiving plenty of cash, and spending some of it on some fabulous movies. We have a decently-packed column for you this week, with info on direct Aditya Chopra’s next film, Sunny Deol’s “Shaheed (The Martyr)”, director Vikram Bhatt’s upcoming films, the Hollywood remake of “The Chinese Connection (aka Fists of Fury)”, “The Touch”, “The Highbinders”, and the “Fat Choi Spirit”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
- First of all, a big congratulations goes out to the Aamir Khan and Ashutosh Gowariker for their film, Lagaan, being nominated for the Best Foreign Film award at this year’s Oscars. Here’s hoping Bollywood gets more international recognition in the future!!
- Director Aditya Chopra has announced the title of his next film – “Na Jaane Kaise Pyar Ho Gaya (How did this Love Happen?)”. The casting is not yet complete, but the director has signed on Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in the leading roles. The film is tentatively set for a Diwali 2003 release.
- Preity Zinta has been signed in one of the leading roles for writer Honey Irani’s directorial debut. The cast is also set to include Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu and the director is looking for one more actor. Filming will begin in May.
- Some more casting news has appeared regarding Sunny Deol’s “Shaheed (The Martyr)” film. The actor-producer is in talks with actress Amrita Singh for a pivotal role, while actor Rahul Dev has been cast as freedom fighter Sukhdev. The film, directed by Guddu Dhanoa, will star Bobby Deol as Bhagat Singh, with Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt in supporting roles. It is due out at the end of this year.
- Hot off the success of “Raaz (Mystery)”, director Vikram Bhatt has signed a number of upcoming projects. The main one announced so far is “Aitbaar” with Amitabh Bachchan, Bipasha Bashu and model John Abraham in the lead. Bhatt will follow this one with a project to be produced by Mukesh Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt, and starring Anil Kapoor and Bipasha Basu in the leading roles. Finally, he also has a film called “Raftaar (Speed)”, to be produced by Firoz A. Nadiadwala.
- Meanwhile, Vikram Bhatt’s next film, the Hrithik Roshan-Amisha Patel starrer “Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage (I Have Started to Like You)” has been post-poned by a couple of weeks due to a shortage of theatres in Bombay. Apparently, there are too many high-profile movies coming out in March and as a result the producers couldn’t bag the biggest theatres for this HUGE film. Nonetheless, a deal has been worked out and the film will be coming out on April 12 now, one week after the release of “Aakhen (Eyes)” with Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar.
CHINA / HK
Here’s the latest report from “AccSpy”:
- Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou is in final negotiations to star in the Hollywood remake of Bruce Lee's kung fu classic "The Chinese Connection (Fists of Fury)". The 24 year-old is the biggest break-though star in recent Asian music showbiz and this will be his acting debut. Talk about a HUGE start! Here's some photo of the future Chen Zhen:
The first pic: Click Now
The second pic: Go Right Here
And a third pic: Click
- Michelle Yeoh's dream project "The Touch" now has its official site and the film will be released in Asia this summer. The site now has a plot synopsis and an ok trailer, but will soon feature various behind-the-scenes documentaries. Here's the link: http://thetouchmovie.com
- Jackie Chan and his crew are still filming "The Highbinders" in Thailand during the Lunar New Year. An ancient castle set is built in the studio there for the big finale. Meanwhile the official site of the film is also up, though there still isn’t much to see: http://highbinders.emg.com.hk/
And here's an on-set pic of Jackie Chan and a slimmer Sammo Hung, who is
the action director of the film: Just Click Here To See
- Director Wilson Yip ("2002") is currently filming a drama for Mardrain
Pictures, with Louis Koo and Mariam Yeung in the leading roles.
- It's Chinese "Lunar" New Year again and again proves to be the busiest period, box-office-wise, as people have nothing to do beside playing Mahjong and going to the theatre. Nine new films entered the top 10 of HKBO last weekend, with the best opening going to Sammi Cheng's "Marry a Rich Man". Vincent Kuk's first directorial film in three years collected $4.6 mil in the 4-days-period, which proved the high salary of Sammi is still worth every dime. "Ocean's 11" debuted second with $3.39 mil HKD, "Monsters Inc.", which opened on Saturday, grossed an impressive $2.9 mil in just two days. Andy Lau led an ensemble cast in the mahjong comedy "Fat Choi Spirit" which debuted at no.4 with $2.15 mil, while Tony Leung and Faye Wong's period comedy "Chinese Odyssey 2002" debuted at sixth with $1.68 mil. Last week's champion "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" understandably slipped to no.6, while two Japanese animes, "Digimon 02" and "Doraemon: Nobita's Adventure" entered at no.7 and no.8, respectively. The gross of Lunar New Year movies usually increases in the second week, which makes it interesting to see if "Fat Choi Spirit" or "Chinese Odyssey 2002" could take a big leap next week.
We have now reached the end of this week's column. Remember, if you have information regarding any film industry in Asia, please contact our Asia-AICN offices at atshrivas@home.com. See you all next week.
Darius25
-
+ Expand All
-
Anyone knows about Andrew -the director, not the actor- Lau
& Corey Yuen's latest ?!? Does
it kick ass ?!? -
I'd love to see "Michelle Yeoh does Armour of God / Tomb Raider", but that teaser wasn't exactly exciting. Will keep the faith, though.*** Didn't Fist of Fury already get a pretty good remake as Fist of Legend? Oh wait, it needs a rap soundtrack, a wisecracking black sidekick and some cool freeze frame/bullet time editing.
-
I'd like to hear more about that!
-
The sets and special FX are very nice. The story is generic sci-fi crap. Real disappointment from the Lau/Yuen team. Sammo Hung doesn't get to fight any but Yuen Biao still has a solid presence onscreen. Too much melodrama and exposition to get the mediocre plot moving. Would've been better if they had just focused on making the fight scenes more breathtaking. The first one approaches what I was thinking of (anime-style, computer kung-fu). But on the whole, they could've done much better.
-
I caught the imported dvd of Avenging Fist last week. It's loosely based off the arcade fighting game Tekken. It was about as entertaining CGI wise as Legend Of Zu but nothing I'd go rush to buy. The tone of the film reminded me to much of Raul Julia & Van Dame's Street Fighter. It's another film to chalk up in a growing new trend of CGI HK films that focus more on eye candy than on plot. Then again, HK films have always been like that tho, more on sytle than on story... what makes them fun I guess. :)
-
Wow, those two HK movie stars look so excited and full of 'joi de vivre'! Life at the top must be great!
-
Feb 14, 2002 11:48:01 AM CST
Jay Chou news is bullshit, How do I know? I am his teacher!
by joe thanks
I live in Taipei and have been teaching "Jay" English for the past eight months. I actually called him up (cellphone and all and it's not a Panasonic - the brand he promotes in Taiwan - but a Nokia) and asked him, flat out. Not only did he laugh about it, but he has NEVER heard of any such rumor. He's a kung fu movie fan, and we exchange Dvds at every lesson (sicne older films are hard to find here) but he said (and I quote verbatim "I wish I could. I love Lee {Bruce}. Nobody's asked me." He did mention other offers he's had, including tv. His pal Jacky Wu (a former student) has been hooing him up with serious film folks though.
So, trust AICN with a grain of salt. Jsut because of one music video fileld with ninjas does NOT make it true, even if Jay Chou would do it at the drop of a dime. Wishful thinking, geeks. -
...as is just about everything that comes out of Bollywood. The mainstream Indian film industry is an embarrassment; completely devoid of any semblance of intelligent story telling.
-
Look being of Pakisatni desent I have been beated down with Indian films that my sisters and mom watch for years. I always got a really good laugh at the corny songs and dance sequences and the over the top action and fight scenes. But Lagaan was different, I actually watched the whole movie from the beginning to end, much to the amazement of my family. Maybe because it was about cricket, a sport that had been explained to me a hundred times but I didn't get all the rules until I watched this film. It didn't have the campyness of other Indian films and i really enjoyed it. And believe me I'm the last person who would endorse an Indian film most of them are crap but Lagaan shows that there are a few diamonds in the rough. -
I'm in the middle of watching Avenging Fist for the third time. It's pretty damn cool. It does suffer a bit from the CG getting in the way of the story and action, but compared to Legend of Zu, it nothing at all. This is a superior film compared to Zu, in terms of the use of action and combining CG. Sammo is really damn cool in the film, and the visuals are some of the best to come out of Hong Kong in a while. I'd recommend watching Averging Fist, but it's not worth spending money on the DVD. My friend Petr loves this fucking movie!
-
I just hope he lays off the blur-o-vision in these fights. He almost ruined both THUNDERBOLT and MR NICE GUY with it. Leave that stuff to Wong Kar-Wai and Ronny Yu.
-
Feb 15, 2002 4:20:44 AM CST
AVENGING FIST worth renting or buying on VCD, NOT DVD though.
by mooncake
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts