Father Geek here along with Darius25, and AccSpy to bring you this Thursday's edition of the Asia-AICN Column. As many of you know, Quentin Tarantino is hosting a little film fest here in Austin, Texas where he shows 16mm and 35mm film prints from his personal collection. We've already been treated to a beautiful scope copies of the fantastic KING OF THE BEGGERS and Tsui Hark's outstanding BLADE. Quentin has prints of Sammo's EASTERN CONDORS, and the legendary Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY lined up for us over the next 2 nights. Then on Saturday we get THE JADE CLAW, THE DRAGON LORD, and FIST OF FURY 2. Wow!!! And Sunday we see THE BIG BULLET, plus it is rumored we'll get to preview a very very big, super current Eastern release late that night... but that's just a rumor for now...

Here's Darius25...

Asia-AICN

Hey all, hope your week went well. It's been really slow during the past
week but AccSpy and I managed to cover some decent news. In this column
you'll find info on the world premiere of "Asoka", directors
Abbas-Mustan's upcoming film, "Tiger Hill", "Shaolin Soccer" and the
North American premiere of "Fulltime Killer". We also have some pics
from "Man at Forty" and "My Schoolmate, the Barbarian". Now here's the
latest from Asia.

INDIA

- Both the recent hit "Lagaan (The Tax)" and director Santosh Sivan's
"Asoka" will be participating at this year's Toronto International Film
Festival. As you already know, "Lagaan" is the tale of oppressed farmers
playing a vital game of cricket during the turn of last century while
"Asoka" is the tale of the legendary king Ashoka the Great who underwent
a philosophical transformation from a ruthless tyrant to a peace-loving
monarch. Directors Ashutosh Gowariker ("Lagaan") and Sivan are expected
to attend with possibility of actors Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan
attending aswell. Other Indian films participating at this year's
festival include Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" with Nasseruddin Shah and
Vasundhara Das, and actor Rahul Bose' directorial debut, "Everybody Says
I'm Fine", with Pooja Bhatt. For more information on the film festival,
visit the official site at This Location

- Actress Amisha Patel has replaced Priyanka Chopra for directors
Abbas-Mustan's next film due to a scheduling conflict. The untitled film
has been through many casting problems recently which also included the
removal of Abhishek Bachchan (to be temporarily replaced by Arjun
Rampal). The producers have finally settled on Akshaye Khanna for the
secondary lead (which Rampal was up for) and have signed Bobby Deol as
the main hero. Hopefully the cast is finalized, but I wouldn't cross my
fingers just yet. The film is "expected" to release next June.

- Meanwhile J.P. Dutta has signed newcomer Karan Nath as the 10th hero
for his upcoming war film, "Tiger Hill". The director is looking for
another main actor to complete his cast which includes Shahrukh Khan,
Sunil Shetty, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan.

- Speaking of Akshaye Khanna, there are rumours floating around that he
is about to start working on a home production which will be produced
(and possibly directed) by his father, actor Vinod Khanna. Kareena
Kapoor is being rumoured to play the female lead.

- Director Mahesh Manjrekar has announced a yet another movie which
would make for his first collaboration with actor Bobby Deol. The
untitled film will also feature Sunil Shetty and Priyanka Chopra in
prominent roles and will start production sometime this winter.

- Producer Boney Kapoor has decided to remake a Tamil-language film yet
again. The original film ("Khushi")'s director, S. J. Surya, has been
hired to write and direct this Bollywood remake. Kapoor has supposedly
signed Fardeen Khan and Kareena Kapoor as the main leads in the film.
Anu Malik has been signed as the film's music director.

HK / CHINA

Here is the latest report from "AccSpy":

- "Shaolin Soccer" grossed a total $57.61 millions HKD last Sunday,
officially becoming the highest grossing local film in HK ever and the
third highest grossing film in HK. On Monday, Stephen and his
"teammates" went on "Who wants to be a millionaire?" and won $1 million
for charity. Click here for a pic: Go Here Now

- "Fulltime Killer" will be shown in this year's Toronto Film Festival.
Director duo Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fei and star Andy Lau are confirmed
to attend.

- Jacky Cheung and Anita Mui are busy shooting "Man at Forty (lit.
title)", in which Jacky plays a high school teacher having an affair
with one of his student (Lin Kar-yin) while Anita plays his wife. Here's
two on-set pictures.

Jacky Cheung: Click Now

Anita Mui: Click

- The final strike of HK films this summer is "My School Mate, the
Barbarian" which opens next weekend. Here's a look at two versions of
posters of the Nic Tse-Stephen Fung action film. The film is shaping up
real well with a KILLER tagline: "Have you ever thought you would die in
school?"

Poster A: Click Right Here

Poster B: Just Click Here

- "Rush Hour 2" debuted no.1 at box office last weekend with $5.6
million. The film should finish just under the $15 million mark. No.2 to
No.5 are "Jurassic Park 3", "Fulltime Killer", "Legend of Zu" and
"Doraemon", respectively. Another new film, the dark comedy "You Shoot I
Shoot", starring Eric Kot and Cheung Tat-Ming and directed by Pang
Ho-Cheng (writer of "Fulltime Killer"), earned some respectful reviews
in HK but only debuted at no.7 with less than $1 million.

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