Father Geek here with the 65th Asia-AICN column from Darius25 and his fine crew of hard working reporters. This weeks installment has a lengthy interview with Stephen Chow and word of a sequel to one of the all time great fantasy flicks... THE THIEF OF BAGDAD... cooooooooooool!!! But first this bit that I received this morning...
Lads,
French site www.multimania.com/hongkongaction reports that John Woo said
that after WINDTALKERS his next 2 films will be with Chow Yun-Fat, starting
with 'Honour Among Thieves' aka King's Ransom', also with Brad Pitt.
Bullet-Proof Monk is also mentioned.
Also, Dark Horizons shows part of an interview with the guy in charge of the
Ninja Turtles TV series and movie, he says that John Woo will probably only
be producing, NOT directing, although he would like him to. Let's hope this
means he can concentrate on another flick with Yun-Fat.
Later,
Bluelou_Boyle
And then there's this correction/explanation of an item that appeared in last week's column...
Big fan ol' father, but the report from the fellow in Belgium was incorrect
in a big way. Yes, Douglas and Del Toro are slated to make a remake
together, but thank god it is of the late 40's Robert Siodmak noir "The
Killers", with Del Toro in the Burt Lancaster role and Douglas as Edmund O'Brien's
investigator/nark. The real question is who would take the Ava Gardner role, you
know it's going to be Zeta-Jones-Douglas though. I'm sure you've gotten
this correction already, but one never can tell.....
Scott
Phew... that was a close one. The Woo title certainly doesn't need to be remade at this point in time. I'm not really in favor of a remake of Siodmak's great, near perfect "noir" penned by Ernest Hemingway either, but its seldom seen now, its not widescreen, or surroundsound, and its in B&W soooo I guess I can see why it could work as an updated flick. Of course it was redone (sort of) before by Don Siegel with Ronald Reagan (his last flick), Lee Marvin, Angie Dickenson and John Cassevettes in 1964. Well that said, Father Geek will now turn you over to Darius25 for the regular Thursday column...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, I hope you've all been well. There's lots of cool stuff in this
week's column including news on a sequel to "The Thief of Baghdad",
"Road", director E. Niwas' upcoming film, and some new details on Chow
Yun Fat's upcoming films. We also have a very interesting interview with
Stephen Chow and some pics from the latest Bollywood release, "Bas Itna
Sa Khwab Hai (Just a Little Dream)". Now here's the latest from Asia.
INDIA
- Now this is just a rumour but supposedly there will be a sequel to
"The Thief of Baghdad" titled "Return to the Thief of Baghdad". The $10
million ($US) India-U.S. production will star South Indian actor
Chiranjeevi, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, and Jean-Claude Van Damme (!!).
Now I have no idea what Van Damme will do in this film but Chiranjeevi
will play the title thief while Ash will play Princess Reshma. The film
will be directed by Douchan Gersi and the music will be composed by A.R.
Rehman. I'll to get some more news confirming this film as soon as
possible.
- After the successful "Pyar Tune Kya Kiya (Love, What Have You Done)",
producer Ramgopal Verma and director Rajat Mukherjee will team up once
again for the thriller titled "Road". Saif Ali Khan will play the
villain this time while Urmila Matondkar will star once again as the
damsel in distress (although she was the villain the duo's previous
film). The filmmakers are still looking to cast another actor for the
lead role. Production will start sometime in the fall.
- Director Mahesh Manjrekar will turn producers for an upcoming film,
which will be directed by E. Niwas. The film will star Sunil Shetty,
Aaftab Shivdasani, Diya Mirza, and Jackie Shroff. Like all Manjrekar
films, the producer has written the script for this one aswell.
- Newcomer Arjun Rampal has been signed by Venus Films to star opposite
Manisha Koirala in director Ashok Mehta's "Moksh". The film is slated to
go on the floors sometime this fall.
- Ashok Mehta is planning to direct another film, which will star Akshay
Kumar and Sunil Shetty (yet again) in the lead roles. However the film
is still very early in development as both the stars and the director
are busy with other projects.
- The producers of this year's biggest hit, "Gadar (Revolution)", are
going to reunite director John Matthew Madan with actor Aamir Khan for
their upcoming film. The duo previously worked in the 1999 blockbuster
"Sarfarosh (The Patriot)". Production will start as soon as Madan
completes the script.
- Last week's new release was Director Goldie Behl's "Bas Itna Sa Khwab
Hai (Just a Little Dream)" with Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee,
Sushmita Sen, and Jackie Shroff. The film is another morality tale
focusing on the consequences of greed and corruption in the urban world.
Bachchan Jr. stars as Suraj, an ambitious small-town man who comes to
Bombay with hopes of making it big time. He hooks up with a media mogul,
Naved Ali (Jackie Shroff), who becomes his mentor and introduces him to
the all the luxuries of the upper-class society. But things turn bad
eventually when Suraj gets buried in this world which alienates him from
his girlfriend (Rani Mukherjee), his family and ultimately, his own
self. You should know what happens next (NO two-fisted shootouts
here!!). You've seen this film before many times, either in "Wall
Street" or in "Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (Raju becomes a Gentleman)".
While this film doesn't reach the heights of those films, it still
manages to be a decent (and effective) fare, especially during the
second half when things turn serious and I found certain scenes to be
quite gripping. The direction is extremely stylish as the director
manages to showcase many slick editing techniques combined with the
unique camera angles and "hip" music. The performances aren't too bad
either with Abhishek Bachchan faring better in this film than his
previous outings last year. He has improved somewhat as an actor and it
shows in the dramatic scenes. Jackie Shroff is good as always while Rani
Mukherjee appears in another underwritten role. Sushmita Sen was also
not used very well as the "bad girl" who manages to seduce Abhishek away
from his comfortable (yet poor) life, but she does look EXTREMELY HOT
for the few scenes she's in. The songs are kind of sappy but they are
placed adequately throughout the plot. All in all, "Bas Itna Sa Khwab
Hai" is nothing new but it's pretty good for some time-pass
entertainment.
Here's a pic with Abhishek Bachchan and Sushmita Sen from the film:
Just Click Here
Here's another pic of the two:
Click Here
Here's a pic of Jackie Shroff (left) and Abhishek Bachchan:
Click Now
Finally, here's a pic of Sushmita Sen (left) and Rani Mukherjee:
Click
CHINA / HK
Here's the latest report from AccSpy:
This time, instead of a weekly basis, I bring you a translation of a
Stephen Chow interview for the column (courtesy of "Ming Pao Magazine").
Enjoy!
This is Thursday afternoon, Typhoon level 3 is attacking HK since
Stephen
Chow's "Shaolin Soccer" opens in HK today. We're supposed to meet
Stephen in his office, but the place was changed to a private club half
hour before the meeting.
Stephen sat next to a pool table in the room. We met and we talked a
bit. Suddenly Stephen said he have to go outside and bring his assistant
in. I wondered why his assistant doesn't know the way, but my partner
was pretty confident that "he's gone to comb his hair." Ten minutes
later, Stephen was back, his assistant didn't come along, only his cap
was gone. "Ready." Indeed.
A few minutes later, we got a call, the numbers at the 12:30 pm showing
were in. "Shaolin Soccer" is so far "the highest grossing film during
its first
show" this year. Everybody laughed, even Stephen was finally showing a
little smile on his face, but he didn't want us the show this figure in
the article, "This kind of record is meaningless, don't write it." Like
he said, now he likes to look further, the final result is
more important.
Stephen Chow's films are always blockbusters in HK, but this time on the
poster of "Shaolin Soccer", the tagline "A Stephen Chow film" is added.
Until now, he was only an actor who enjoyed the highest salary but now
he has to finance his own film, what's the difference?
"It's so much harder. Being a filmmaker myself I understand how hard it
is to finish a film. I want to be serious, don't want to use the fastest
way to finish a film with little budget, in fact we can and still make a
whole lot of money, but I'm a stupid person, I need a long period to
arrange the whole thing. It's my guilty conscience."
"There's lots of movie-making genuises in HK and they can use one
single formula to help them survive. I was then doing the same trick
too: only following one formula, only measuring the taste of the local
market. Now I think a bit further, do it better...Oh, nevermind, I'm
stupid, I need more time to get it right. People asked me, 'Did you
really need two years to finish SS?" Really. Hey! I wanna be fast, but
this is the
fastest as I can. How come? I'm stupid. That simple."
Stephen doesn't feel to need to buckle down under pressure from his
competition.
"I'll try my best, there's number of things we cannot change by just
worrying. I'm in this business for more than ten years. I think... it's
all about trying my best. Basically, you need a younger mind and take
interest in everything around yourself. Now I have my own office, I
don't need to take the bus or subway, but I am still trying to know
everything better around me, I won't give up to enjoy knowing better of
everything. This is the only way to enjoy your life."
Last month, Stephen Chow became the first ever artist to be invited to a
conference in Peking University. Five years ago, "A Chinese Odyssey 1 &
2" opened in China but flopped. Two years later, because of the pirated
VCD business, the films became popular. First of all, his primary fan
base is college student, then the white-collars, then the fever spread
to the IT industry, finally the whole generation X crowd in China.
"A Chinese Odyssey was doing moderate business [in HK]. I felt the films
can be better. Afterall, movie is for different levels of audiences,
sometimes I try different things, because I don't, the audiences would
say 'why your movies are always the same?', then if I do something
different, they are like, 'Why change? what did you do that for?' You
have to face this dilemma, always find a balanced point to please most
of the audiences and change whatever you want. Otherwise, I'm sure it's
not good. The main point is to change in order to please most of the
audiences. It's pretty contradictory, I'm still trying to figure the way
out, There has to be failure during the process, yet I tried."
In many people's eyes, Stephen Chow is intelligent, though he thinks
otherwise. I believe nobody would agree. If he said it's a failure, what
was that? "For instance, A Chinese Odyssey, the audiences asked 'Isn't
it a movie about Monkey King adventures? Why we saw a tragic,
life-after-life love story instead?' the audiences didn't get what they
want from the movies, that's what I mean a failure. but it's the magical
thing about movies, if it's a good movie it must have it's valuable
things inside, it has to be dug deeper after a period of time. Looking
back today, the films are no longer a failure, this is the great
effort from director Jeff Lau and the crew."
Now the film has finally earned its credit: the atmosphere of the
convention is exhilarating. "I was invited by my identities of actor and
director. In the convention there's nothing really serious to discuss,
we just talked about my movies and... any kinds of films. They (the
students) felt so relaxed, and the hall is huge, thousands of people are
there, and it's the most respectful university in China, it's so
touching. I told them, if I finished a movie in which the audiences
won't fall asleep in the theatre, I'm happy enough. They even memorized
the dialogues from the movie and spoke them in front of me, I'm really
impressed."
Let's talk about "Shaolin Soccer". " I feel lucky that many people
supported it along the way. To start a film, first of all there is a
finance problem, you have to find an investor, then the story, creative
problem and the production problem. I feel lucky that there are always
someone to help me in different parts. Like we found Ching Siu-Tung to
be the action director. He is the VIP in the film, because this is my
first action movie, and people always think I'm a comedian, they only
watch me to talk. If we don't have Ching this time, nobody believed I
can make it. More important, there's never a soccer and martial-arts
hybrid as an example to let us follow, not single one."
Stephen admitted he argued with Ching all the time, "There has to be a
situation where I kicked you from behind and you kicked me back. It's
fortunate enough to get kicked until you arrived at the right position."
Right now, Stephen is more willing to accept others' opinions. "I
believe anyone is smarter than me, everyone should have something to
be proud of. Besides Ching Siu-Tung, I have to thank Fok Chun-ting, he
reminded me to shoot a film about soccer, he inspired me to do this."
His latest partner in the film is Vicki Zhou, Stephen's comment is:
"Vicki is good, in fact most of the actors from mainland are so
professional. They graduated from drama college, they learnt the acting
theories, the way to handle the emotions, etc. Certainly the atmosphere
on the set is not very gentle, we have to worry about things like going
over-budget, time problems, etc. Sometimes I taught her to act during
scenes and forgot to take care of other things. When I got angry, I
started barking at her for which I felt sorry about that later on, but
she's like 'it means you paid an effort on me, otherwise I'll object!'"
Stephen's old partners, Karen Mok and Cecilia Cheung, also had cameos in
the film. With no exception, they still looked ugly in this film, they
played men. On mentioning Karen, Stephen immediately responded, "Karen
is SO supporting, she agree to join once I opened my mouth and I didn't
want to waste them too much of their time. Basically if they came and
visited the set, it was enough."
Karen was willing to join the film even after their break-up and I asked
about this to Stephen, "You guys have been dating and after that you
still have a strong friendship. I really admire this attitude."
Suddenly, Stephen felt so embarrassed about the topic, he murmured,
"Yeah ......right......it's not a crime." Maybe they are still best
couple on the screen, Stephen didn't deny, "Maybe....., maybe.."
Stephen thought Karen didn't change alot, "Her working attitude is the
best, apparently, she has spirit to do the best, not only good, but
great. Sometimes I said that's enough, she still want to do one more
shot." Is this that you are both self-centered? Stephen laughed, but he
agreed Karen's IQ is higher. People seems to be scared of Stephen, they
thought they are not as smart as he is (Even Ching Siu-tung mentioned
this in an interview), he said, "You're kidding. It's not about who's
smarter. In fact, the simplest people are the smartest ones."
Stephen is still single, and although his mom doesn't mention this much,
his dad's more worried about this issue. "I don't see my dad often,
maybe not much to say, every time he sees me he's like, 'How old are you
again? I think......' I don't let him finish, I'm like 'Okay! Okay!
Gee...'"
Someone had asked about Chow Yun-Fat's upcoming films. I'm passing on
some rumors which, maybe, someone else in the TB can confirm or deny:
1. This was posted on the "Rotten Tomatoes" site: "Waiting" based on a
novel by Ha Jin about an army doctor during the cultural revolution who
struggles in an arranged marriage and "waits" 18 years in order to get a
divorce and marry the woman he loves. Production is slated to start in
Sept. or Oct. They are casting the female lead now.
2. A movie about the building of the U.S. transcontinental railroad by
Chinese immigrants. This is to be called "The Line," and be directed by
John Woo. It will filmed in Canada. Russell Crowe and Tom Hanks were
rumoured to be involved at various times. The film is slated to start
shooting in April 2002.
3. "Bulletproof Monk" has been put on hold in favor of the above two
films.
- Just how well "Shaolin Soccer" was doing during the weekend in HK?
Under the attack of typhoon, SS still managed to collect $12.7 millions
in the first four days, easily debuting at the top. Grabbing less than
half of SS, "Shrek" debuted at no.2 with $5.7 million. At no.3, "Love on
a Diet" crossed the $35 million milestone already while "Pearl Harbor"
was at no.4 and "The Mummy Returns" at no.5. The latter film is looking
forward to become the first film to cross $40 million in almost two
years.
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
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