AT FILMART

DAY 1
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John Woo
Woo pushes
1949 to 2013
BY SEN-LUN YU
John Woo’s epic about lovers torn
apart during the Chinese Civil War
has been postponed until early
2013 due to actor-scheduling confl
icts, and sources say Woo is planning
to take advantage of the delay
by shooting his long-cherished
remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s
1967 classic Le Samourai this year.
Woo’s producer and Lion Rock
Production partner Terence Chang
would not reveal much about the
English-language film, which he
hopes to announce in the next few
weeks.
Meanwhile, Zhang Ziyi and
Song Hye-kyo are still lined up to
star in the love story, tentatively
titled 1949, which already has most
of its budget in place, with backers
including Beijing Galloping Horse,
Zhejiang Huace Film and TV Corporation,
and China Film Group.
Lotte sells
Ghastly horror
BY JEAN NOH
South Korean sales company Lotte
Entertainment is launching sales
here on horror film Ghastly starring
Hyo-min, of popular girl
group T-ara, in her acting debut.
Directed by Ko Suk-min, the fi lm
also stars Han Eun-jung and Lee
Hyung-suk. Ghastly follows a family
that goes through a twisted kidnapping,
birth and death.
Lotte has also started sales on
romantic drama Architecture 101,
starring Suji from girl group Miss
A and Lee Je-hoon. Produced by
Myung Films (Cyrano Agency), the
film follows a man and a woman
who fi nd each other again 15 years
after they fell in love at fi rst sight.
“The response to the fi lm’s previews
has been hot,” said Lotte’s
head of international investment &
distribution Juyoung Park.
MONDAY, MARCH 19 2012
DW lands with Tycoon, Rose
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Distribution Workshop, the Hong
Kong-based sales arm of Chinese
studio Bona Film Group, is at Filmart
with a slate of hot projects
including gangster thriller The
Last Tycoon starring Chow Yun Fat.
To be directed by Wong Jing, the
fi lm tells the story of real-life gangster
Du Yuesheng who built his
crime empire in Shanghai in the
1920s and 1930s. Infernal Affairs
director Andrew Lau will produce
Wanda Media has acquired
mainland China distribution rights
to war epic Warriors Of The
Rainbow: Seediq Bale, directed by
Taiwan’s Wei Te-sheng. The release
is scheduled for early April. Wanda
Media is the film production and
distribution arm of Chinese realestate
conglomerate Wanda Group
and the sister company of cinema
circuit Wanda Cinema Line,
and Peter Pau is on board as DoP.
The cast will also include martialarts
maestro Sammo Hung. The
project, previously known as Grand
Shanghai, is in pre-production.
Also new on Distribution Workshop’s
slate is Christmas Rose, the
directorial debut of Hong Kong star
Charlie Yeung, which was selected
as a HAF project in 2009. Aaron
Kwok, Xia Yu and Kwai Lun-mei
will star in the fi lm which has Wing
Shya on board as production
Wanda to unleash Warrior in China
The film has yet to receive a
screening permit from China’s State
Administration of Radio, Film and
Television (SARFT) but has been
cleared on the reviewing process by
Chinese censors, according to
sources near Wanda and producer
Jimmy Huang, who handles rights in
Chinese-speaking regions on behalf
of Wei’s ARS Film Productions.
Wei has edited a 150-minute
AT FILMART
designer and Henry Chung as DoP.
At the time of its HAF selection,
Oxide Pang was on board as producer,
but Tsui Hark and Jacob
Cheung will now produce the
$3.5m project. Pre-production is
scheduled to start in April.
In addition, Distribution Workshop
will introduce David Hsunwei
Chang’s action comedy Double
Trouble at a press conference here
tomorrow. In post, the film stars
Jaycee Chan, Xia Yu and Jessica C.
Khoo fills Urn, engages Apprentice
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Gorylah Pictures, one of two production
labels run by Singapore
fi lm-maker and Asian Film Awards
jury president Eric Khoo, is joining
forces with Clover Films and MM2
Entertainment to co-produce
supernatural thriller Inside The
Urn (working title), to be directed
by Gilbert Chan.
The three companies previously
collaborated on Chan’s hit horror
film 23:59. His new project,
scripted by Tan Fong Cheng, tells
the story of a family haunted by a
child spirit, known in South-East
Asia as a Toyol, which has been
invoked by a witch doctor from a
dead human foetus. Production is
scheduled to start in June for a
year-end theatrical release in Singapore
and Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Khoo’s other Singapore-based
production label, Zhao
Wei Films, is developing Boo Junfeng’s
Apprentice with Singapore’s
Peanut Pictures and Akanga Film
Asia. The film, tentatively scheduled
to start shooting from the end
of the year, tells the story of a
Malaysian prison officer who
strikes up a friendship with the
prison’s chief executioner.
Khoo will executive produce
with Raymond Phathanavirangoon,
Fran Borgia and Zhao Wei’s
Gary Goh producing. Boo’s debut
feature Sandcastle premiered in
Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2010.
Donnie Yen and Keanu Reeves were
among the special guests at the
inaugural Power Of Film Gala. The
event took place last night at the
Grand Hyatt to raise funds for FilmAid
Asia, which uses the power of film to
bring information and relief to
refugees and other strife-torn
communities around the globe.
Reeves was an honouree at the gala
alongside activist Duncan Jepson,
while Yen is a member of the FilmAid
Global Artist Council.
version of the film for the mainland
release, different from the version
that premiered at Venice last year; a
few of the brutal battle scenes have
been taken out. The film took $29m
in Taiwan in late 2011. Several
mainland distributors showed
interest in the film but Wanda
Group’s strength in the exhibition
sector is believed to have clinched
the deal. Fortissimo Films handles
sales for the film outside China.
Sen-lun Yu
TODAY
Nicholas Tse
NEWS
Fighting fires
Emperor Motion Pictures backs firefighting
drama with Nicholas Tse
» Page 6
Universe launches big titles
Chan to direct untitled police
actioner, Pang shooting Conspirators
» Page 7
REVIEWS
Love In The Buff
Pang’s sequel to Love In A Puff is a
relentlessly entertaining romance
» Page 10
SCREENINGS
What’s screening today
» Page 18
Fortissimo goes
Full Circle
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Fortissimo Films has picked up
international rights outside China
to Zhang Yang’s upcoming feature
Full Circle.
In post-production, the film
revolves around a group of lively
senior citizens in a nursing home
who compete in a television variety
show. Veteran Chinese actors Wu
Tianming, Xu Huanshan, Li Bin
and Yan Bingyan head the cast.
Produced by Ann An, Li Li and
Zhang Qiang with the involvement
of China Film Group and Desen
International Media, the fi lm is set
for a wide commercial release in
China later this year. Founded in
2006 by Ann An, Desen is a Beijing-based
production and distribution
outfit with production
credits including 14 Blades, Ip Man
2 and Lee’s Adventure.
Meanwhile, Fortissimo has also
sealed sales deals on other titles on
its slate with new distributors in
Korea and India.
Korea’s JoyNContents Group
has acquired Wei Te-sheng’s Warriors
Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale
and Yonfan’s Bugis Street Redux,
which recently screened in the
Panorama section at Berlin. Both
titles are being lined up for a
Korean theatrical release.
Start-up Indian distributor DAR
Media Group acquired two horrorsuspense
titles handled by Fortissimo,
The Shock Labyrinth and
Tormented, both directed by
Takashi Shimizu. DAR plans to
release the fi lms theatrically in 3D
and 2D formats throughout India
this summer.