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Chinese movie Hero dominated the weekend box officer with estimated US$17.8 million revenue, according to studio estimates. Over the weekend, Hero was distributed in 2,031 theaters across North America, easily became the widest Asian release of all time, a recorded previously held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with 2,027 theaters. In addition, Hero knocked out Bring It On (US$17.4 million) as the biggest end of August opening ever and landed on the second place of best foreign language début behind The Passion Of The Christ, a US production featuring a practically extinct "foreign language" called Latin. It collected an estimated US$6.7 million on Friday (another record for Asian productions), US$6.6 million on Saturday and US$4.5 million on Sunday according to MiramAxe's estimation. The record for all-time top growing foreign language film in North America is held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with US$128.07 million.

Two years ago, MiramAxe paid a reportedly US$21 million for distributing Hero in North and South America, some European countries, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. Later when the film was released in east and southeast Asia, MiramAxe broke the promise of releasing it in North America by the end of December of that year, reportedly the Weinstein brothers was concerned that a few of their own productions, like Chicago and Gangs Of New York, might be overshadowed during the Oscar race. Even after Hero received an Oscar nomination for The Best Foreign Language Film, MiramAxe still refused to carry out any promotion. During the following one and a half years, afraid of not getting their 21 mills back, MiramAxe pushed the released day for at least five times. After MiramAxe's parent company Disney, who has fast-growing business interest in China, stepped in and Quentin Tarantino attached his name to the film, which somewhat eased the Weinstein brothers' concern, MiramAxe finally picked a day August 27.

For more talks:

Jet Li's 'Hero' Tops Box Office, by David Germain, Associated Press

'Hero' Star Sits Atop U.S. Box Office, by Chris Gardner, Reuters

'Hero' Soars to Late August Record, by Brandon Gray, Box Office Mojo

For more, click here and here.

The cast list of The Seven Swords (Seven Swordsmen Leave Mt. Heaven) has been announced today at a news conference this afternoon in Beijing. The cast includes Leon Lai, Charlie Yeung, Lu Yi, Sun Honglei, Kim So-Yeon, Donnie Yen, Wang Xueqi, Zhang Jingchu, Zhou Qunda, Dai Li-Wu and Huang Peng. Veteran Hong Kong martial-art actor, choreographer and director Liu Chia-Liang will helm  the action. According to director Tsui Hark, The Seven Swords would be a series with seven installments and the first one would go into production this week. Seven Swords is based on Liang Yusheng's wuxia novel, Seven Swordsmen Leave Mt. Heaven, which tells a tale of seven swordsmen rebelled against the Qing regime.

Winners of the 10th Huabiao Film Awards have been announced tonight at a grand ceremony in Beijing, attended by many stars (photos). The awards are run by the Chinese government and generally represent the conservative viewpoint of Chinese film industry.

Yesterday Jackie Chan and Leung Ka-Fai arrived at Xi'an's The First Emperor's Terra-Cotta Soldiers and Horses Museum to shoot a few scenes for The Myth. According to Hong Kong paper Sing Pao Daily, they played two archeologists, who were arguing about something inside pit 1 of the museum. The museum was built on a series of pits, where thousands of terra-cotta figures have been unearthed and thousands more are still waiting for excavation. The burial pits are part of the China's First Emperor's mausoleum. The filming only lasted for less than a day and it involved no actions. Jackie Chan has finished the shooting in Shanghai and Wuxi. His next destination is Gansu Province and then he will go to India.

More on The Myth

(Miramax)	(Media Asia)	(Media Asia)

Left: MiramAxe poster.

Mid: Original Hong Kong teaser poster.

Right: Original Hong Kong finally poster.

The date has been pushed back to September 17.

Official North American site

Official Hong Kong Site

(Thanks to "Paul".)

Get the showtimes and tickets:

USA   Canada

More stills

Teaser trailer: Kung Fu / Kung Fu Hustle (QuickTime / 0:39)

Click here to download the trailer.

Just ignore the annoying song!

Transcript:

Columbia Pictures proudly presents the highly anticipated new film from internationally acclaimed superstar Stephen Chow. ... "Mister, would you teach us Shaolin soccer?" ... "## !" ... Stephen Chow ... Kung Fu Hustle ... This Christmas ...

(Thanks to Curtis Tsui.)

It features Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen, Tan Dun (the composer), Louis Anderman (an Asian film historian),  and of cause, Quentin Tarantino.

Inside the Action: The Making of Hero (QuickTime / 11:31)
 

(Thanks to "Paul".)

Click here for the complete list. (Thanks to "Paul" for the news on Kung Fu Hustle.)

Leung Chui-Wai	Zhang Ziyi
Gong Li	Lau Kar-ling
Faye Wong	Kimura Takuya
(Block 2 Pictures)

This images were taken from a 10 minute trailer. Click here for more.

According to Hong Kong paper Oriental Daily, Tom Cruise and his partner Paula Wagner are set to produce a remake of Hong Kong thriller Colour Of The Truth (literal title: Black and White Forest). Released last year in Hong Kong, Colour Of The Truth tells a story of a cop who for many years carried the guilt of the death of his partner, not knowing his partner was secretly working for the gangs. Meanwhile, the son of his partner wants a revenge and the cop's own son has learned the rule of playing on both sides of the law. Cruise and his Wagner are also holding the rights to remake another Hong Kong production, The Eye.

Nomination list for China's 24th Golden Rooster Awards has been released yesterday. For the best picture, it is House Of Flying Daggers against Shanghai Story and Profoundly Affecting. Zhang Yimou is nominated for best director for House Of Flying Daggers, along with Peng Xiaolian for Shanghai Story. Liu Wei, for Defending Reputation, and Liu Ye, for The Foliage, are competing for the Best Actor. For the Best Actress, Zhang Ziyi is picked for playing three roles in Jasmine Women. Other nominees in the same category are Zheng Zhenyao for Shanghai Story, Tao Hong for Taekwondo and Jiang Qinqin for Jie Jie Ci Dian.

Golden Rooster has been dubbed as the top film award in China, only mainland Chinese productions and mainland Chinese citizens are eligible for the awards, and only the officially submitted are allowed to compete. Most nominated movies have never been publicly released and some titles, like Profoundly Affecting and Defending Reputation, got nominated somewhat because they were "politically superior".