Father Geek here with another edition of Asia-AICN for your Thursday reading pleasure, buuuut before we get to Darius25, AccSpy, and our other reporter/spies here are a couple of bits that Ol' Father Geek received on his PC here at the Geek Headquarters Compound in the heart of the Texas Hill Country in Austin, Texas...
Today's VARIETY reports that star Jet Li will reteam with DMX for "M."
The Warner Bros. project also marks a reunion for the ``Romeo Must Die'' pair with that film's director Andrzej Bartkowiak and producer Joel Silver.
The new film promises the same formula of a modest budget, lots of action and a strong soundtrack.
It pits a law enforcement officer (Li) against a streetwise entrepreneur (DMX) who's suspected of being part of a global diamond heist. The adversaries find themselves uneasily aligned as the cop helps the crook find his daughter, who's been kidnapped by a dangerous man bent on acquiring the diamonds as part of a scheme for mass destruction.
``It's an exciting movie that's a topical but not threatening premise, with some awesome action beats,'' Silver said.
DMX, who has long flirted with the role, made his feature debut in ``Romeo Must Die'' and followed that with the hit ``Exit Wounds,'' also produced by Silver and directed by Bartkowiak. The William Morris Agency, which just signed DMX, aims to broaden the platinum-selling rapper's acting career beyond straight action fare.
Li also is on his third film with Silver, who introduced the Hong Kong veteran to U.S. audiences in ``Lethal Weapon 4.'' Li most recently starred in ``The One'' and is planning a pairing with Jackie Chan.
On a side note, rumor has it that Jet dropped his pet project FIRST KING (which Silver would have produced) for M. Why? Because in FIRST KING, Jet was to play a modern day Joe who fights his doppledanger from ancient China: He's already done that in THE ONE.
---Doublewhammy
Annnnnd here's some more uber cool info...
Witchiepoo here. I was just checking the latest on Nausicaa.net and found out there are 2 new Studio Ghibli films due out soon! Check it out -- Miyazaki is Exec. Producer on both! Yeehaw!
From Nausicaa.net:
More details on Studio Ghibli's upcoming films from the MML via Ryoko Toyama:
"Neko no Ongaeshi (Cat Returning Favor)" Image
Based on "Neko no Dansyaku, Baron (Baron the Cat Baron)" by Aoi HIIRAGI Published by Tokuma Shoten. Directed by Horoyuki MORITA Music by Yuuji NOMI ("Whisper of the Heart") Script by Reiko YOSHIDA Producer: Toshio SUZUKI Exective Producer: Hayao MIYAZAKI To be shown with "Ghiblies Episode II"
To be released in the Summer of 2002 by Toho.
"Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)" Image
Based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones Directed by Mamoru HOSODA ("Digimon the Movie") Script by Reiko YOSHIDA Supervising Animator: Katsuya KONDO ("Kiki's Delivery Service") Exective Producer: Hayao MIYAZAKI To be released in the spring of 2003 by Toho.
Here's the URL for more info: Just Go To This Site
Father Geek back just long enough to introduce Darius25 and crew with this week's column...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you’re having a pleasant week. We have some really cool news for you in our 90th column (WHOA!!), including info on “Company”, director Vikram Bhatt’s new film, “Plan”, the HK Tekken film titled “Avenging Fist”, “New Year’s Fortune”, and “Love Galaxy”. We also have some pics from “Pitaah (Father)”, “Avenging Fist”, and “New Year’s Fortune”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
“Moviemaniac” sent us this extremely interesting report on Ramgopal Verma’s “Company”, which is due out this March. Here it is:
Hi Darius25,
I just wanted to write in to you about the new RamGopal Verma Movie "Company". The film which is about two gangster friends who become enemies stars Ajay Devgan and Vivek Oberoi (Suresh Oberoi's son) in the lead roles. Word has it that Vivek Oberoi is Ramu's stunning new find, hes an amazing actor and his performance in the movie is one to watch out for. This is Ramu's second gangster movie after Satya, which till date is the best Hindi movie ever made IMHO. Satya is waay better than even any Hollywood gangster movie. Company is supposedly on a much larger scale, and ramu says hes adopted a larger canvas, concentrating more on the gang aspect than the gang members themselves, as he did in Satya. The movie website is at http://www.companythefilm.com. As of now there’s not much there except a real cool intro, but I can't help being really excited about this. For more on this topic, check out this site: Visit It Here
- Moviemaniac
Now here’s the latest production news from Bollywood:
- Director Vikram Bhatt will collaborate with producers Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt once again for his next film titled “Aitbaar (Trust)”. Anil Kapoor and Bipasha Basu are confirmed for the leading roles while the remainder of the casting has yet to be completed. Bhatt is currently finishing up last-minute work on “Raaz (Secret)” with Basu and newcomer Dino Morea, and “Awaara Paagal Deewana (The Punk, the Fool, and the Lover) with Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, and Aaftab Shivdasani. The former will be released on February 1st while the latter will be released in the summer. Work on “Aitbaar” will begin once the two films are completed.
- Salman Khan will finally star in a second film with (real-life love) Aishwarya Rai in actor Atul Agnihotri’s directorial debut, “Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha”. The film follows the tale of two Army officers who both fall in love with the same girl (sound familiar??). Both Arjun Rampal and Sohail Khan are up for the part of the other male lead. The film is set to start shooting in March.
- With work on “Kaante (Thorns)” wrapping up shortly, director Sanjay Gupta is all set to begin on his next production with actor Sanjay Dutt, titled “Plan”. The film is said to be even bigger in scale than their latest film (which has an AWESOME starcast of Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar and Dutt himself) and you can expect a rather large starcast. Expect tonnes of stylized gunplay aswell. The film will be produced by Dutt and Gupta’s White Feather Productions but it’ll be directed by an outside director.
- Last week’s new release was the latest Mahesh Manjrekar-Sanjay Dutt film, “Pitaah (Father)”. Besides the Manjrekar regular, the film also stars Jackie Shroff, Nandita Das, Anupama Verma, and Om Puri. Like his previous films, the director has made another emotional drama while toning down the bloodshed of his previous collaborations with the lead actor. Dutt stars as a rural farmer named Rudra, who works really under the rule of a ruthless landowner, Narayan Singh (Om Puri). After a string of events, Rudra’s daughter ends up being sexually abused by Singh’s sons, setting the farmer on a violent rampage for revenge. Of course the landowner retaliates aswell, which ends up in an overlong courtroom drama followed by some brief action sequences. After nearly a year-long break, Sanjay Dutt comes back with full force in the dramatic role, and he’s pretty impressive indeed. He doesn’t overact, and you can earnestly believe in the down-to-earth role of an everyman (looking NOTHING like the superstar that he is). Nandita Das is equally impressive as his supportive wife. Om Puri manages to be an ok-ish villain while Jackie isn’t really given much to do (he plays a corrupt cop who turns positive in the end). Again, my major fault with the film is that the director tends to go way overboard in the dramatic scenes. He doesn’t play this like a straight-out drama like the Hollywood original, nor does play this like an average action film. The drama ends up being contrived while many will wonder where the action is. The songs are of the filler-material, and could be easily deleted while the pacing of the film is rather slow. As a Dutt vehicle, the film ends up being ok (based on his performance alone) and fans of the director will know exactly what to expect. For the rest of us, “Pitaah” remains just an average fare.
Sanjay Dutt: Click
Nandita Das, center, chatting with the director (the white-haired guy) on the sets: Click Now
Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff: Just Click To See
Om Puri and Jackie Shroff: They're Right Here
HK / CHINA
“Monkey_King” is back after a long time with some great info on the HK Tekken film, known “officially” as “Avenging Fist”. He also has some info on his own film which sounds pretty cool aswell. Here he is:
Hey Darius25,
Haven't e-mailed you in a while, but I figured I'd drop this one on you. Here is the link for site promoting the live action TEKKEN film called 'Avenging Fist' that was just recently released. The film, as you may have heard is directed by Andrew Lau (Storm Riders, The Duel) and stars Sammo Hung Kam Bo, Yuen Biao, Ekin Cheng, and Asian hottie Kristy Yang. Just Click To Catch The Action
It also features behind the scenes interviews with many of the production staff, actors and the director Lau himself. Here are a few pics from the film that should be hitting ChinaTowns everywhere come next month.
Stephen Fung (as Hworang) and a hottie: Click Here Now
An M. Bison-type dude: Click
An action scene with possibly Ekin Cheng (right-side), it’s kinda hard to tell: Just Go Here
Kristy Yang: Click to Visit
Enjoy, Monkey_King
Also of note. A film entitled 'The Stone Monkey' is in development at my company DarkLight Studios. It is a modern day tale of the return of my namesake in modern day and how he reacts to what has transpired on Earth during his stay in Heaven for the past 500+ years. Much violence and fantasy style wickedness ensues.
Here’s the weekly report from “AccSpy”:
- A not-so-good news from HK kicked off 2002: Actress Cecilia Cheung was critically injured during a car stunt performed for a TV charity show last week. The actress was required to make a car jump over five parked cars and land on cardboard boxes. She successfully flew over the cars but it landed somewhat off-target causing injury to Cecilia's neck and lower back. The actress is required to stay in the hospital for the next couple of months and will wear a full-body cast during the time. Fortunately, there was no nerve damage to Cecilia and the doctor estimated that no side-effects will occur after she's recovered. We wish Cecilia to get well soon.
Due to the incident, Cecilia is forced to turn down numerous of jobs, including a few commercials and the Chinastar-produced Chinese New Year film, a con comedy directed by Johnnie To and starring Andy Lau as "Marjong Police", Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Gigi Leung. Cherrie Ying, who made her acting debut in "Fulltime Killer", is replacing Cecilia in the film which started shooting a few days ago and will be rushed for the mid-Feb release. Cecilia is also unable to promote her latest film "Second Time Around" with Ekin Cheng and director Jeff Lau. Others projects like the sequels of "La Brassiere" and "The Legend of Speed" might also suffer production delays or will be re-cast with other actresses.
The horrifying image of the accident (NOTHING graphic): See It Here
Cecilia was rushed to the hospital after the accident (NOTHING graphic): Go Here
The cast of the New Year's con comedy "New Year's Fortune (lit. title)". From left, Andy Lau, Charrie Ying, Lau Ching Wan, Chinastar founder Mrs and Mr Charles Heung, Gigi Leung and Louis Koo: Click NowTo See
Charrie Ying replacing Cecilia in the film: Just Click
Lau Ching Wan and Louis Koo: Click Here
- Candy Lo has joined the cast of "Love Galaxy (lit. title)" as a professional dancer. The film, which includes Nicholas Tse, Karena Lin and Eason Chan, has already started shooting and will be released later on in the year.
- Here are the results of the new year's first HKBO: "Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone" was still the champion, while"Behind Enemy Lines" debuted at no.2 with $2.73 millions HKD. "Spirited Away", "Dance of a Dream" and "Running out of Time 2" were at no.3, 4 and 5, respectively.
