Ol' Father Geek here along with Darius25 and his column for this Thursday. Buuuuut first a bit from Hong Kong night at CANNES and Ye Meng...
Ye is here!
Some of the stuff that has been revealed at the Hong Kong Night in Cannes.
Black Mask 2: Poster (apparently): Click Now
The new look of Black Mask by Andy On: Just Click Here
Jet in the original: See it Here
While promoting for his new flick Kiss of the Dragon, Jet Li still managed to attend the party and even had a hug with Jackie Chan: Just Click to See
For more info, go to And just Click...
Ye Meng
Well, Father Geek is back just long enough to say "Here's Darius, pigmon and AccSpy...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, we're back for another round of cool film news from the
far-east. We have a packed column this week with news on "Lagaan (The
Tax)", "Yeh Tera Mera Ghar (This is Our House)", "Shaolin Soccer",
"Cosmo Warrior Rei", and "Metropolis". We also have some very cool
on-set pics from "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes
Sad)", "No Problem 2", and "Reborn Unlimited". Now here's the latest
from Asia.
INDIA
Hey all, we're back for another round of cool film news from the
far-east. We have a packed column this week with news on "Lagaan (The
Tax)", "Yeh Tera Mera Ghar (This is Our House)", "Shaolin Soccer",
"Cosmo Warrior Rei", and "Metropolis". We also have some very cool
on-set pics from "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes
Sad)", "No Problem 2", and "Reborn Unlimited". Now here's the latest
from Asia.
INDIA
- The highly-anticipated "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad)" is now in production in England. Most of the major cast members (Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Jaya Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor) were present during a shoot in the Bluewater Shopping Centre in London last week. Many on-set pics were posted on www.zulm.net and a few of them are linked below. Check out the site for more pictures.
Shahrukh Khan and Jaya Bachchan in an emotional scene: Just Click
SRK and Jaya continuing on the same scene (Jaya plays SRK's mother in the film): Go Here
Hrithik Roshan waiting around for his scene: CLICK!
And now Hrithik looks like he's going to snap any minute: Click Now
Amitabh Bachchan: Just Click
Director Karan Johar in a conversation with Kareena Kapoor: Click Here
- There were rumours about singer Sonu Nigam's debut in Bollywood, but one of them has finally been confirmed. Nigam has agreed to play the lead role in "Kaash. Ap Hamare Hote (If You Were Mine)" which will be directed by Ravindra Peepat. Actor Raj Babbar's daughter, Juhi, will also make here debut in the film.
- Some new stills were released online from Suneel Darshan's "Ek Rishta - A Tale of Love" even though the film opens next week. The family drama stars Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Juhi Chawla and Karisma Kapoor.
To see a pic of Karisma, click here: Right Now
Here's another pic, this time with with Juhi Chawla and Akshay Kumar (who play siblings in the film): Click Now
- Director Priyadarshan's "Yeh Tera Mera Ghar (This is Our House)" has been postponed till August 3rd. The comedy stars Sunil Shetty as landlord trying desperately to get rid of a tenant (Mahima Choudhary). He turns to his cop friend (Paresh Rawal) for assistance but the cop falls in love with the girl instead. Things get more complicated when the girl falls in love with the landlord. The story actually sounds pretty decent and reminds me of the intellectual comedies of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee films from the '70s. Look for Paresh Rawal to steal the film yet again from the leading pair.
- After many delays and release date shuffles, "Lagaan (The Tax)" has finally settled on a June 15th release. The big-budget period film went through a lot of delays mainly due to producer (and star) Aamir Khan's whims and the recent earthquake in Gujarat which completely destroyed the sets needed for some last minute touch-ups. The film's post-production work is still under way even though the director claims that it will release on June 15th no matter what.
Lagaan's delay could cause a ripple in the release schedule with films shifting all over the place to avoid the potential blockbuster. The film's biggest competitor, "Gadar (Revolution)" with Sunny Deol and Amisha Patel, has decided to stick to its intended release date of June 15th causing quite a furor in the industry. This will be the first time two big-budget period films will be releasing on the same day. Both films focus on the same subject matter (the British rule over India) but their stories and settings remain totally different. Gadar's director, Anil Sharma, claims that his film caters to a whole different audience because it is a period romance while Lagaan is a full-blown drama catering more to the critics than the mainstream audience.
But wait, a third film is planning to release on June 15 - Goldie Behl's "Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai (Just a Little Dream)" with Abhishek Bachchan, Jackie Shroff and Rani Mukherjee. According to Behl, the film is catered towards a younger demographic who like teenybopper romances so the arrival of two period films will not really hurt his film's chances at the box office. However, Abhishek Bachchan is in no way as popular as either Aamir Khan or Sunny Deol, so Behl is taking a major risk releasing this film on the same day. But he doesn't really have a choice as pushing his film back will cause it to class with another film starring Abhishek, "Shararat (Mischief)", scheduled to release on July 12th.
- June looks to be an even busier month for Bollywood as 3 more films are scheduled to release on June 29th. The release schedule for that day includes the highly-anticipated thriller "Aks (Reflection)". Directed by Rakesh Mehra, the film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Manoj Bajpai as two criminals hellbent on destroying each other. Preliminary word on the film is very good and the film boasts superior production values (being completely shot in Prague) and highly impressive action sequences. The action film is countered by not one but two Fardeen Khan comedies. The first one, "Hum Ho Gaya Aapke (I am Yours)", marks the debut of Reema Sen, daughter of the famous '80s actress Moon Moon Sen and is directed by Ahathian (from last year's surprise smash, "Sirf Tum - Only You"). The second film featuring the actor is called "Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega (Do Anything for Love)". The film boasts an impressive star cast which includes Sonali Bendre, Twinkle Khanna, Aaftab Shivdasani and Saif Ali Khan. It was directed by E. Niwas.
CHINA/HK
Here is AccSpy's weekly report:
- Hollywood make-up artist Steve Johnson ("The Exorcist", "Ghostbusters") is helping to transform stars Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng into a pair of 300-pound couple in director team Johnnie To and Wai Kar-fei's new romantic comedy, "Slim Couple (lit. title)". In the film, Sammi plays Mini Mo, an over-weight girl who was dumped by her first love ten years ago and swears to reduce the weights in 45 days before accepting the proposal from the guy with the help of her best friend (Andy Lau). The stars and directors hope to create another blockbuster success similar to last year's "Needing You..." and the film will be released next month. It will be competing with another Sammi Cheng starrer, "Cohabiting Friends" with Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
Here's a pic of the chubby couple: Click Here Now!
Here's another shot of Sammi: Go Here
A funny Andy Lau: Click
- The distribution rights in US of Stephen Chow's new film "Shoalin Soccer" and two old films "God of Cookery" and "King of Comedy"' were sold to Miramax at the Cannes film festival, as well as Zhang Ziyi's Korean film "Warriors". Strangely, Miramax is promoting Stephen Chow as an "HK Action Star" at Cannes. The reason may be Shaolin Soccer's poster, which is a parody of the poster of Bruce Lee's "The Big Boss". On a related topic, Silvia Cheung's "Princess D" and Michelle Yeoh's "The Touch" have also found distributing studios for releases in the US.
The poster of "The Legend of Zu":Is Coooooool!
The poster of "Princess D", starring Angelina Lee, Edison Chan and Daniel Wu: Is Here
- Director Andrew Lau and producer Manfred Wong will bring their "Stormriders 2" project from Golden Harvest to Andy Lau's Teamwork Pictures. Teamwork will finance the film and Andy Lau will play "No Name", the lead character in this sequel.
- Director Chin Kar-lok has started shooting his action comedy titled "No Problem 2". The film stars Yuen Biao, Candy Lo and Sam Lee. It's already set to release next January in Japan.
Here's a pic of the cast and crew: Click Right Here
Director Chin Kar-lok teaching Candy Lo some moves: Click Here
Candy Lo in red: Just Click
- Ekin Cheng and Cecilia Cheung are now in Las Vegas to film "Reborn Unlimited" (prev. mentioned as God's Forbidden Area). The film will be released in July. Click here to see a still from the set: Click Right Now
JAPAN
Here is the weekly report from Pigmon:
"Cosmo Warrior Rei".
For the first time in 19 years, Reishi Matsumoto will make a TV anime series for TV Tokyo. It will be based on last year's PS2 Japanese game of the same name. The show starts from July but you can check Matsumoto's latest work on any Daft Punk's music videos, such as "One More Time" and "Aerodynamic".
"The Ring".
The most successful horror movie in Japan is now being remade into a Hollywood production. The upcoming film will be produced by Dreamworks studios and will be directed by Gore Verbinski ("The Mexican").
"Metropolis".
I recently caught a sneak preview of the latest anime from Rintaro. The story takes place in a distance future where robots conduct most of the jobs and many humans live underground. The film focuses mainly on the relationship between these androids and humans, kind of like a Blade Runner-light without any cyberpunk neo-noir feel to it. The animation is fantastic with a mix of traditional hand-drawn animation (for the characters) and CGI (for the environments and VFX). A secret screening was held on May 8th at Sony with many Columbia Pictures execs and James Cameron. After the screening, Cameron sent a message through Sankei Sports newspaper stating "Metropolis is the new milestone in anime, a spectacular fusion of CG background with traditional character animation. It has beauty, power, mystery and above all......heart.
Images from this film will stay with you forever. My congratulation to Rintaro-san for his masterpiece." Because the animation is so visually stunning, the producers have decided that there will be no sub-titles and the film will be dubbed into the English language (I actually agree with this move). Voice casting will start soon at Sony Pictures and the film will be released all over the world early next year. In the meanwhile, you can check out some beautiful images from the film at Their Site.
