Father Geek here finally. Iwas traveling with Harry on the Hollywood branch of his book tour and when we returned my computer was frozen, now a mouse and a powersource later I'm up and running. Some of last weeks columns will be combined with this coming weeks editions soooooo you won't really be missing anything. Before we get to Darius and AccSpy I've got a couple of KILL BILL and Tarantino updates for all of you...

Just saw you on CNN! Now I feel much more confident of Episode II!

Anyway, I know you like Quentin Tarantino and I know you can't wait to see his KILL BILL like everybody else. Early this month he made a short trip to China and was interviewed by Beijing Youth and Beijing Today. Apparently, Beijing has replaced Hong Kong as one of the four locations for this film. After several secret visits to Beijing Film Studios, he has decided to shoot more indoor scenes there, not just Chinese scenes but many Japanese scenes and even some American scenes. Saving money has played a major role on his decision.

During the interview, Quentin Tarantino talked about how Shaw Brothers' kung-fu flicks and Italian Westerns influenced his career, how painful for him to write the script, how he would work with Chinese and Japanese cast and crew, how excited he was to work with Yuen Wo-ping, how Uma Thurman's child helped him to get everything ready, so and so ¡­

Click here to read the interview (http://www.monkeypeaches.com/killbill/index.html#020316)

Ye Meng, MonkeyPeaches (http://www.monkeypeaches.com/)

Now here's some more on QT's latest...

Hey guys, 1138, resident spy in the house of Mao, Beijing that is. When answering a local ad for westerners to appear in local film productions at the Beijing Film Studios (or Movie Town) as the maps call it, I was told that a certain American director was currently touring the facilities this week with an eye for using them to shoot his next feature. The director turns out to be Quentin Tarantino and I can only guess that the film in question would be Kill Bill, this was confirmed when a FOAF was cast as an asassian and given a training date with Yuen Woo Ping here in Beijing. The choice of Beijing to film Kill Bill makes sense as the facilities here are first rate as is the technical talent and fits in perfectly with Tarantino's outsider appraoch to film-making (non union crews, etc.).

Also on a side note, not sure if Harry knows this but he is qouted on the local, shall we say, unofficial, DVD release of the French/Japanese comedy Wasabi. The bootleg disc makers here frequently place some English accolade on the cover of their packaging, usually it is gibberish, or a qoute from a decades old film (Patton seems to be popular for this), But displayed prominently under the title for Wasabi is this qoute "...I actually hear the script's quite good..." (Harry Knowles, Ain't it Cool News) I can't quite remember if Harry said this about this particular film or if this is just another random bit of English pulled for their purposes,

make the correction 1138...

Father Geek back just long enough to hand it all over to Darius25 and crew...

Asia-AICN

Hey all, welcome to our 100th column here on AICN!! Man, I didn’t know a hundred weeks has flown by so quickly and I’m hoping that we'll still be around for a long time.

While this one is not as fully packed as last week, we still have some pretty interesting stuff here, including news on “Yagna”, “Company”, “Indigo”, Tsui Hark’s “The Death Duel” remake, “Initial D”, and the results of the 7th Golden Bahnua Awards. We also have some pics from “Chori Chori (Secretly)” and “Tiramisu”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.

INDIA

- Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra has announced on plans to make another action film, this one titled “Yagna”, which will star Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan in the leads. What’s interesting is that this will be Bachchan’s third straight “evil” role, after next month’s “Aankhen (Eyes)”, and June’s “Kaante (Thorns)”. You can probably expect some cool wire-fu and double-fisted gunplay sequences. No female leads have been confirmed but Preity Zinta was approached for a leading role. Further casting will be announced shortly.

- Actress Urmila Matondkar has chosen not to break her working streak with director Ramgopal Verma, and has agreed to do a special appearance in the director’s latest film, “Company”. Verma practically brought Urmila into the limelight with 1994’s “Rangeela (Colourful)”, and the two have collaborated on the director’s every single film since then. The actress will appear in an added song in the gangster drama, which stars Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, and Manisha Koirala. It opens on April 12.

- Actress Raveena Tandon has now joined the cast of “Pran Jaaye Par Chawl Na Jaaye (Life Goes but the Neighbourhood Stays)”. Raveena has replaced Mahima Choudhary, who couldn’t do the film due to creative differences with director Sanjay Jha. The mainly female all-star cast includes Tabu, Namrata Shirodhkar, Diya Mirza, Rinke Khanna, and Shweta Menon. The film is due sometime this fall.

- Manoj Bajpai has signed on as the male lead of an Indo-Canadian production, “Indigo”, to be directed by Suresh Natranjan. The English-language film, also starring Sarah Polley, tells the story of an American dance student who falls in love with a Hindu priest. It will be mainly shot in Toronto and parts of southern India, staring from this September.

- Rahul Bose has signed on to star in director Aparna Sen’s “Mr. & Mrs. Iyer”, opposite Konkana Sen. The English-language film will start shooting in Southern India later this year.

- Some new stills have been released from the film “Chori Chori (Secretly)”, directed by Milan Luthria. The romantic drama stars Ajay Devgan, Rani Mukherjee and Sonali Bendre, and will be released on March 29. Here’s the pics.

A very NICE Rani Mukherjee (center): Click Right Here

Another good pic of Rani: Check It Out

Ajay Devgan and Rani: They're Right Here

Another pic of Ajay and Rani: Click to See Them

CHINA / HK

Here’s the weekly report from “AccSpy”:

- Here's the partial list of the winners of the 7th Golden Bauhinia Awards:

• Best Film: Shaolin Soccer (VERY good choice – D25)
• Best Director: Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer) (Again, I completely agree – D25)
• Best Screenplay: Vincent Kuk and Edmond Pang (You Shoot, I Shoot)
• Best Actor: Wu Jun (Lan Yu)
• Best Actress: Sylvia Cheung (Forever and Ever)
• Best Supporting Actor: Wong Yuk-fei (Shaolin Soccer)
• Best Supporting Actress: Josie Ho (Forever and Ever)

  - Finally, Tony Leung Chiu-wai has been cast opposite Leslie Cheung in Tsui Hark's remake of the swordplay classic "The Death Duel". Karena Lin would step in the role "Doll" which originally went to Zhang Ziyi. The film will be produced by Derek Yee (the star of the original version).

  - Andy Lau confirmed that the live action version of "Initial D" will not start shooting until 2003.

  - The official site has opened up for the Easter holiday big release, “Tiramisu (previously known as “Love Galaxy”)”. The film is directed by Dante Lam (“Jiang Hu: The Triad Zone”) and stars Nicholas Tse, Karena Lin, Eason Chan and Candy Lo. Click here to visit the site: http://www.u333.com/films/tiramisu/index.html Here’s some great pics, which tell quite a few things about the film’s visuals. Nicolas Tse: http://www.u333.com/films/tiramisu/photo/photo8.jpg

  Nicolas and Karena Lin (I think) amongst a gorgeous backdrop: Click

  Nicolas and Karena in another cool setting: Click Here

  Eason Chan: Just Click

  - Miriam Yeung's "Love Undercover" stayed at the top of HK box office for the second weekend with a total grossing of $9 mil HKD so far. Jack Black's "Shallow Hal" debuted at no.2. "July Rhapsody", featuring Jacky Cheung’s eighth HKFA-nominated performance, finally opened in wide-release and debuted at no.3. "My Sassy Girl" fell to no.4, while "Queen of the Damned" and "Kate and Leopold" debuted at no.5 & 6 respectively. Jean Reno's action comedy "Wasabi" and critically-acclaimed Japanese film "Go" landed at no.8 & 9 respectively. (WASABI opened already??? – D25)

  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