Father Geek just received this from Agent Ye somewhere in the mysterious orient... ZU #2 I can't wait, between this and that TEKKEN flick action fans should be getting their fill...
Hi,
Ye is here.
On Monday Ang Lee, Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi had attended the Beijing premiere of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Michelle Yoeh didn't show up for some reasons although she was in Beijing at that time. The mainland China's release date of CTHD has been pushed back from mid July to August. Interesting enough, U-571's release date was pushed forward from August to July 12. In August, CTHD is expected to fight a deadly battle with John Woo' M:I2 in China. Ironically, John Woo once wanted to cast Chow Yun-Fat, played Li Mu Bai in CTHD, for M:I2. Both films were shot last year and Chow could only do only one of them.
Wang Dulu, whose novel was used for the film, is among the Top Ten of Kung Fu novelists in the history of Kung Fu literature. He lived in Shanghai and the novel was written in the 1920's. Unlike many other Kung Fu novelists, Wang is good at describing characters' emotions and feelings rather than their fighting skills. Wang has already passed away.
In other news, according to a newspaper Southern City in China (July 13), Ang Lee is going to be invited to join the Jury of next year's Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin. His next project might be Berlin Diary with Nicole Kidman.
According to an interview by Germany's Focus magazine during the Germany premiere of M:I2 (June 30 ?), John Woo is going to shoot a suspense plus romance movie with lots music and no gunfight. After the war epic Windtalkers he is currently working on, he will make King's Man, which is rumored to be the new title of King's Ransom staring Chow Yun-Fat. He also said he might have a project with Harrison Ford and John Travolta. Story and title of the possible project are still yet to come.
According to July 11th's Global Time of China, Tsui Hark is doing a sequel of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain. Despite the rumor that everyone from the original, released in 1983, will be called back, like Brigitte Lin, Adam Cheng, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark has cast a group of young stars, including Zhang Ziyi from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Like the original, the sequel is a fantasy of battle between good and evil involving human and gods. Tsui Hark invited Yuen Wo-ping (Jet Li?fs Fist of Legend, The Tai Chi Master, The Iron Monkey, The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to design fights, hoping to make it looks gigantic and beautiful. It has many huge fighting scenes and 70 to 80% of shots will have special effects.
Zhang Ziyi will play Princess Letian, who has long ponytail and purple face. Singer Zheng Yijian will dress in black to play a good god, Shi Xuan Tian Zong. Gu Letian will play a god from Mt. Shu, Dan Chen Zi, who has twin wings.
Tsui Hark said the reason he hired the biggest stars and using the most advanced photographic techniques is that he wanted to make a China?fs Star Wars. ?@?@
Tsui Hark is a veteran Kung-Fu director. Some of his works are Peking Opera Blues (1986), A Better Tomorrow III (1989), Once Upon in China I (1991), II (1992), & III (1993), Double Team (1997) and Knock off (1998).
Ye Meng
