Thursday, May 13, 2010

5.13.2010 - News


In Wang's opinion, the potential success of Chongqing Blues proves the exceptional efforts of his film crew, but it is not representative of China's film industry, especially not the artistic film scene that has been "gradually dying," according to Wang, since 2003 when the market opened up to high budget, profit-geared blockbusters.
China Daily: Wang film up for Palme d'Or





Screen Daily: Bill Kong's Edko sells Life Is A Miracle
Bill Kong’s Edko Films is launching international sales on award-winning Chinese director Gu Changwei’s Life Is A Miracle, starring Zhang Ziyi and Aaron Kwok, here at Cannes.
Set in a small Chinese village, where an illicit trade in human blood has resulted in the spread of HIV, the film follows two fellow AIDS sufferers, played by Zhang and Kwok, who fall in love with each other. 
Meanwhile Edko has also picked up international rights to Jacob Cheung’s Rest On Your Shoulder, a fantasy romance that combines live action with CGI animation.
The story follows a young woman who makes a pact with a mythical being to become a butterfly in exchange for the recovery of her sick fiancé. The cast is headed by Aloys Chen, Gigi Leung, Kwai Lun-mei and Jiang Yi-yan, while the crew includes award-winning Japanese composer Jo Hisashi (Departures, Spirited Away).

Fox Searchlight has taken North American rights from IDG China Media to Wayne Wang’s sweeping epic Snow Flower And The Secret Fan.



Gianna Jun and Li Bing Bing star in the adaptation of Lisa See’s bestseller about female friendship in 19th century China. Hugh Jackman also appears.

However, producer An Xiaofen says the film could have earned much more. "Ip Man 2" was leaked online on May 4, one week after its release. The pirated version has attracted more than 10 million clicks. That would amount to 300 million yuan (US$44 million) at the box office, the producer estimated.

No Man's Land in limbo

Update on Ning Hao's No Man's Land. According to reliable sources, Ning Hao's oft-delayed, highly anticipated film has been 'smothered', i.e., cancelled, last week. Even after numerous changes, the film had failed to meet the approval of the film review board. If this is accurate,  film producer, China Film Group, stands to lose huge amounts of money that it has invested in it. However, a Sina Entertainment spokesman denied that the film had been killed. Aptly named, No Man's Land, indeed. (Sina), 2

Lin Peng was mistakenly introduced on the red carpet as Fan Bingbing by the red carpet host. Later, the publicity director explained that the confusion and embarrassment was due to a delay in Fan Bingbing's car arriving.  (Xinhua)

Lucas has a new little brother
Cecilia Cheung gave birth to a little boy weighing 7.7 pounds yesterday at 10pm

Deborah Li, Patrick Tse Yin, happy grandparents (Xinhua)
Although Nicholas' parents, 1950s heartthrob Patrick Tse and former actress Deborah Li, told the media that the child hasn't been named, sources previously said the parents have decided on 'Marcus'.




Sam Lee with Myolie Wu, Sharon Chan and Joyce Tang in TVB drama Fury Street Corner


Marsha Yuan guest performed at Michael Wong's Legend Reborn Macau show while mom Cheng Pei Pei watched from the front row.

Josie Ho also guested


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: Nic Tse/Cecilia Cheung's new kid. Thank god they decided not to name him "Focus." Or was that a joke?

re: Sam Lee. Sorry to see him in a bad TVB production (redundancy?) He was one of my faves when he hit the scene back in the 90s & I thought he was pretty good in Dog Bite Dog. Hope he can escape television purgatory and make it back to the big screen.

dleedlee said...

Or was that a joke?
I'll have to go back and research that. It might have been a netizen suggestion, not a family choice. :D

re: Sam Lee
Don't know about that series but, yeah, I'm sad that he's not doing films lately. LMF has regrouped so maybe he's going to concentrate on that. My uninformed sense is that ATV is more quality oriented whereas TVB is focused on idols, a reversal from decades past when TVB had both.

TV might not necessarily be a bad thing, it's just that a lot of us overseas folks don't have much chance to follow them. Imagine if we only knew TV actors from their films (Jennifer Aniston, David Caruso, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, et al)

dleedlee said...

re: Focus
'Focus' was the top vote-getter in an internet poll after Nic said he wanted a '-cas' name. Deborah Li was asked what she thought of it but she didn't know the meaning. It was explained that he would become the center of media focus and family attention. Deborah said, thank you for your concern about my grandchild.

Nicholas Tse denied that Focus was his English name but in any case it seems to have stuck with the media. ;D

Anonymous said...

honestly, focus isn't the worst HK-chinese english name I've ever heard.