Thursday, June 17, 2010

6.17.2010 - News

THR: MPAA's Pisano calls for 'open and free' industry in China
THR: Product placement finding its place in China
Product placement strategies for China’s booming movie business drew a standing room only crowd to the film market’s closing day, on the sidelines of the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival.
  • But China’s catching up and imitating Western practice quickly, if not always smoothly. In the current boxoffice hit romantic comedy “Go La La Go,” by director Xu Jinglei, the male protagonist is cheered up when his girlfriend hands him a cup of Lipton tea without mentioning the American brand.
  • Actor Tony Leung appeared on an outdoor billboard for Head & Shoulders shampoo with the same haircut and black shirt he wore in “Infernal Affairs” (2002).
  • “With my film ‘Spicy Love Soup,’ Peter showed us all kinds of things we’d never seen done for movies in China, like a soundtrack using pop stars, posters in the subways and a Valentine’s Day,” said Zhang about the film he said grossed about 30 million yuan ($4.39 million), a killing for its time.

City Monkey (6/10)
China's first parkour movie is more about the teenage hero's combative relationship with his mum than about the sport itself.
Unofficial Ip Man prequel has a quality look and lively tone, with plenty of good action.
Shanghai (7/10)
Full-on, pulpy mystery-thriller, set in spy-ridden '40s Shanghai, entertainingly tips its hat to studio classics.

Short of having the Warner Bros. logo at the start, and Humphrey Bogart walk on screen and say "Play it again, Chan," Shanghai is the closest thing to an oriental version of Casablanca in colour and widescreen as you're likely to get. The surprising thing is that it pretty much works, on its own deliberately pulpy level, and even manages to pack some genuine emotion into its final section and must-make-the-last-ship-out finale. The central plot doesn't really manage to combine the main character's personal and professional quests, and some interesting side characters get beached by the tight editing; but while it's running on screen, Shanghai doesn't bore for a second...

Zhang Ziyi and Sun Honglei have signed on to star in the epic historical film 'Revolution'. Sun Honglei plays Huang Xing, second only to Sun Yat-Sen, who led an alliance to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Zhang Li will direct with a script by Wang Xiaodong, who wrote The Founding of a Republic. (Xinhua)

Pang Ho-Cheung

Hong Kong director Pang Ho-Cheung revealed in Shanghai that he was entering the mainland market. He will make three films in three years under an agreement with a subsidiary of Jiangsu Radio and Television Studios. He said Hong Kong producers at most invest $10M yuan. Pang's first mainland film will have a $30M yuan budget. He admitted that he is still learning the mainland review system and that he will consult with his mainlaind partner and slowly he will learn it. Pang has already started preparation on his first film. It is an adaptation of a book whose rights have been purchased [Women's guide to catching spoiled boys] and it is in the scripting stage. The tentative Chinese title is 'Spoiled Women, Best Life'. (Sina), 2, 3

Shanghai's winning projects include Lost In Touch, Last Valentine's Day (Screen Daily)
Quan Ling’s Lost In Touch and Sheng Zhimin’s Last Valentine’s Day took the top two prizes at China Film Pitch and Catch (CFPC) and Co-production Pitch and Catch (Co-FPC), the project market of Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF).
At a low-key awards ceremony in Shanghai last night, novelist Quan Ling (權聆, pictured) secured Most Creative Project Award for Lost In Touch (陌生), her melodrama about a husband and wife experiencing the seven-year itch that is to be produced by Jia Zhangke's (賈樟柯) Xstream Pictures (西河星匯).

CJ readies 3-D creature movie
CJ Entertainment (CJ엔터테인먼트) is re-teaming with Haeundae (해운대) producer JK Film to deliver a 3-D creature movie.
Production gets underway this week on Block 7 (7광구, working title), a creature-action film set on and below an oil rig. (FBA)
Wang Xiaoshuai, John Woo

 
Pang Ho-Cheung, Doze Niu
3-D charges the air in Shanghai
From his own experiences working with a Hollywood studio, He Ping said that US producers see their own films as global films and not just as North American films, with powerful resources at hand to take the films into international markets. The implication is that Chinese producers are still thinking too locally. He also said that Chinese producers have a "not invented here" mindset and that they should work more closely with neighbouring countries on new technologies. (FBA)



CJ and Polybona form strategic partnership
Jiang Kai and Huang Yi, only separated?
Latest reports from 'informed sources' indicate that Huang Yi is trying to salvage her marriage to Jiang Kai. Previously reported to have a flash marriage and flash divorce, it's said that the couple is only separated and that divorce proceedings were not finalized. 
In the interview, Huang Yi said: "The question was repeatedly asked is sometimes annoying, I'm here to tell my friends who care about me, one thing, that I really had separated Jiang Kai." As to the causes, Huang Yi stressed: "Just because personality clashes ... ... there are many problems, really hard to say a few words clearly. It is purely due to a financial (the people), one artist, two people working environment there is no way to reconcile, he will move. Some requirements may be I can not accept personal and work environment is the most important (reason). "
Huang Yi said she tried to restore their marriage, "as a girl, if not to the last step, certainly will be very hard to restore. I have this feeling, or serious, otherwise I would not be open to you this feeling. But indeed there are many problems in that period, I have been in a confused period. until the subsequent emergence of the photographs, I also can not question him, why did you do, but I think I tried, for me, This is not a good thing, is a great harm. "
She also revealed than in October she may work in Herman Yau's new film 'Qiu Jin'. (Xinhua)


Charlene Choi signed autographs in Beijing to coincide with the release of her Mandarin CD As a Sa. (Xinhua)
Zhao Wei
Ruby Lin, Zhao Wei



Zhao Wei, Ruby Lin, and China Film Group Deputies visited a senior actress on her birthday at a Shanghai hospital. (Xinhua)

In a 5-minute clip circulated on a popular Chinese video-sharing website, Lucas Tse, son of power couple Cecilia Cheung and Nicholas Tse, pouts and moonwalks to the beat of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It'.
Twenty years her senior, Mu is said to be a native from the Shandong province who grew up in Taiwan. Apart from being the boss of a famous club in Shanghai, Mu is also active in the Taiwanese showbiz arena and is one of the masterminds behind many Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese productions.

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