Donnie Yen Masters Hand Combats for STORMBREAKER (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

November 20, 2005

Donnie Yen with Alicia Silverstone.	Donnie Yen on the set of Stormbreaker.
(DonnieYen.net)

Dnonie Yen just finished choreographing fight scenes for Stormbreaker. Based on Anthony Horowits's best-seller, Stormbreaker tells the story  14 year old British teenager Alex Rider, who has been unwittingly trained by his uncle with the skills need to be a spy. When his uncle, whose true identity is a m16 agent, is killer, Rider is forced to take over his uncle's dangerous unfinished mission. Alex Pettyfer plays the lead character and the cast also includes Ewan McGregor (Star Wars prequel trilogy), Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) and Andy Serkis (Gollum of The Lord of the Rings and King Kong of King Kong). According Donnie Yen's fan site DonnieYen.net, Stormbreaker is the first of three deals he signed with Miramax, when Harvey Weinstein, who had known Donnie Yen for years, was still in charge of the Disney subsidiary. The North American rights of Stormbreaker now belongs to The Weinstein Company.

November 19, 2005

(Sina.com)

More set photos of Battle of Wits are now available on Sina.com. Andy Lau, the male lead of the war epic, drew a portrait of his character, Ge Li, on the wall of his dressing room (click here). He said the drawing showed Ge Li crying for not understand why there were so many wars in his world. The story of Battle of Wits follows Ge Li's attempt of stopping a small state being conquered by one of its neighboring states. The filming is under way outside of Beijing city.

Andy Lau to Star in Two Period Films - STRATÉGE and ZHAO ZILONG (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 2, 2005

Zhang Yimou Wants Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li for his Third Martial-Art Piece? (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 27, 2005

Opening This Week: November 12 - 18 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

November 18, 2005

Stills Of SHA PO LANG, A New All-Star Hong Kong Martial-Art Production (DonnieYen.net / hkfilmart.com) September 11, 2004

Chinese media report that the production of Mission: Impossible 3 will restart in a popular tourist Chinese town called Xitang (West Pond), about 90 kilometers to the west of Shanghai. According to Xitang.com.cn, shooting in the town will begin the 24th and will last four days. Tourist spots will be closed during these days. The production will then move to Shanghai. According to a Taiwanese newspaper, scenes in China, including the finale, will count about about 40% of the movie.

M:I-3 Might Be Shot in China (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) May 23, 2005

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA Images (HelloZiyi.us)

November 13, 2005

Click here for the winners' list.

China's 25th Golden Rooster Awards (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

November 12, 2005

Winners of China's 25th Golden Rooster Film Awards have been announced at a lavish ceremony tonight in the tropical island of Hannan. The Golden Rooster, once the top film award in the mainland China, is now downgraded to a "festival" and is only representing the voice of the "old guards" of China's film circle. Some winning movies have yet been released which is one of the reasons the award is no longer popular. This year many filmmakers, like Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang, chose to let their works stay way from it. Organizers are more interested in using the "festival" as a profit maker and ignore the fact that Golden Rooster has lost much of its credibility.

Click here for the winners' list.

November 12, 2005

According to an unknown source, Jet Li and  have been cast for the movie version of hand combat game Tekken. According to IMDB, Jet Li is not on the list and  I highly doubt that Jet Li has joined the project. He has said that he would stop doing more action movies until he found a really good script and the script of Tekken does not sound like the one he is looking for. Anyway, the cast includes Liu Chia-Hui, one of the regulars in Shawn Bros.' classic martial-art films and recently played the head of Crazy 88 in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Pai Mei in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Takeshi Kaneshiro, star in both Japan and China (including Hong Kong) and played the handsome law-enforcer from House of Flying Dagger, Zhao Wei, Steven Chow's goalkeeper girlfriend in Shaolin Soccer, Pak Ho-Sung, from both Mortal Combat projects, Brian J. White, plays Detective Tavon Garris in The Shield and is also in Corey Yuen directed DOA: Dead or Alive, another combat game adaptation just wrapped up, Fann Wong, Singaporean singer actress who played Jackie Chan's sister in Shanghai Knights, and Nathan Jones, Australian strongman got killed by Brad Pitt in Troy and just finished fighting with Jet Li in Fearless.

November 11, 2005

Set of a city gate.		Andy Lau
(China Foto Press)

According to Sina.com, Andy Lau hurt his left foot during the shooting of  Battle of Wits, formerly known as The Stratége. The accident occurred after he jumped from the top of a city gate to the ground. In this war epic, Andy Lau plays a wise man who tries to stop a small state being conquered by one of its neighboring states. The production is currently being made outside of Beijing city.

 

More photos.

 

 

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November 11, 2005

Chinese Trailer of WU JI / THE PROMISE / MASTER OF THE CRIMSON ARMOR (Sina.com)

November 10, 2005

Set Photos of THE BANQUET (Sina.com)

November 9, 2005

Sina.com displays three photos showing Andy Lau chatting with director Feng Xiaogang on the set of THE Banquet, a Hamlet inspired period drama, starring Zhang Ziyi, Ge You, Daniel Wu and Zhou Xun. Pieces of the set design by Tim Yip are shown on the background. Andy Lau, starred in Feng's last movie A World without Thieves, is now working on Battle of Wits, a historical war epic based on Japanese comic series The Stratége.

Andy Lau to Star in Two Period Films - STRATÉGE and ZHAO ZILONG (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 2, 2005

More Stills of WU JI / THE PROMISE / MASTER OF THE CRIMSON ARMOR (Sina.com)

November 9, 2005

More PERHAPS LOVE Stills (Sina.com)

November 8, 2005

Director Peter Chan Makes Musical PERHAPS LOVE With MILLION DOLLAR BABE Producer (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) March 12, 2005

Another Trailer of WU JI / THE PROMISE / MASTER OF THE CRIMSON ARMOR (Sina.com)

November 7, 2005

Hong Kong trailer

More about Wu Ji / The Promise / Master of the Crimson Armor

11 Minute Trailer of WU JI / THE PROMISE / MASTER OF THE CRIMSON ARMOR (Tiida.com.cn)

November 6, 2005

BANQUET Spy Photos (HelloZiyi.us)

November 5, 2005

(?)

HolloZiyi.us just posted several photos showing a set built at an unidentified location and some extras resting outside the soundstage, an aircraft hangar north of Beijing city. The set and costumes are all in dark colors to reflect the movie's dark tone.

 

Click here for more spy photos.

 

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THE (NIGHT) BANQUET Press Conference (Sina.com) October 29, 2005

Shooting of YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET Continues (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) October 26, 2005

More Shots from the Opening Ceremony of Feng Xiaogang's YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET (Sohu.com) September 25, 2005

Feng Xiaogang's YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET Held Opening Ceremony in Beijing (Sina.com) September 22, 2005

The Creation of YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) September 15, 2005

Feng Xiaogang抯 Epic YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET Ready for Production (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) August 31, 2005

Cast List for Feng Xiaogang's THE NIGHT BANQUET Announced (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 19, 2005

WU JI / THE PROMISE / MASTER OF THE CRIMSON ARMOR's Hong Kong Trailer (Cinama.com.hk)

November 4, 2005

This one is much longer than the Japanese trailer released on the net last month. It shows  more shots by cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), more designs by Tim Yip and manga artist Masago Kimiya, more wired actions by Tung Wei (Hero, The Warriors of Heaven and Earth) and Dion Lam (Spider-Man 2, The Matrix Trilogy), more scores by Klaus Badelt (Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator) and more CG effects by Hong Kong based Centro Digital Picture (Thanks to "Sun" for the information.) Too bad, the resolution of this video is low. Director Chen Kaige just finished redoing several CG effects in October, so some shots you see in the trailer might be work-in-progress (Thanks to "Mary" for the information). This mage budget fantasy film will be released in Asia starting next month. It has already been selected as China's bid for the Best Foreign Film category of next year's Oscar. The Weinstein Company, has already acquired the film's rights for all major English speaking countries, plans to release it in New York and Los Angeles on December 16, under the title Master of the Crimson Armor. This would make it eligible for other categories of the Oscar.

(Thanks to Disi Hu.)

More about Wu Ji / The Promise / Master of the Crimson Armor

Opening This Week: October 29 - November 4 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

Official Site of FEARLESS, Jet Li抯 HUO YUANJIA Biopic Opened with Teaser and Stills (FearlessTheMovie.com)

November 3, 2005

Jet Li抯 Huo Yuanjia (English title: Fearless) just had its official site launched. Huo Yuanjia (1868-1910) is known for promoting martial-art and patriotic spirit in China when the country was suffering from corruption and foreign invasion.  In Shanghai he openly challenged a Western boxer and the event greatly raise the national pride. In Fist of Legend, Jet Li played Chen Zhen, a fictional student of Huo Yuanjia, the role also played by Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury. However, Fearless is only loosely based on the real story of Huo Yuanjia.

Newest Wacky Action by Hong Kong Director Jeffery Lau - A CHINESE TALL STORY (...)

November 2, 2005

PERHAPS LOVE Stills (...)

November 1, 2005