(DVDDRAMA)

The official emblem of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was unveiled last night at the historical Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Several pieces of music composed for HERO by Tan Dun were used as the background music during one segment of the celebration gala helmed by HERO's director Zhang Yimou. A short film promoting the emblem, also directed by Zhang Yimou, was shown last night at China's CCTV. Zhang Yimou has volunteered to direct the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and he is willing to give up directing movies for two or three years if he gets the job. However, it is still to early to seal the deal for him. During an interview with CCTV, he said, "my next movie will go into production soon."

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According to an article posted on indieWIRE written by Anthony Kaufman, HERO "won't get released in the U.S. until next year, according to Miramax." This is not shocking news, not at all. MiramAxe and Harvey and Bob have shown their greedy for profit long long time ago. They feel more confidence on selling videos from Shaw Brothers' library, to what they called niche market. SHAOLIN SOCCER, which has been scheduled for showing in theaters across North America, could be seen as another "bold" attempt of testing the water bigger than the niche market. But, the core of it, the die-hard martial-art fans, are less enthusiastic about seeing the mutilated Miram-axed version on the big screen. HERO, which is more stylish, more artistic and more Eastern, has scared the scissorhands of MiramAxe. Afraid of receiving a bad box-office report and still thinking about getting the tens million dollar investment back, MiramAxe has, once again, pushed HERO back

Article: Chasing the Dragon: Are Foreign Martial Arts Movies Making a Comeback?, by Anthony Kaufman

Thanks to "Bad Link" and anonymous

More pictures:

Zhang Ziyi and Jet Li

Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi (another one)

(Left) Director Zhang Yimou, Zhang Ziyi and Jet Li

Director Zhang Yimou, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi and producer Bill Kong attended a news conference this afternoon in Tokyo . The Japanese première will be held tomorrow and the release date is set for August 16th.

Shots from the new conference:

Zhang Yimou, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi and Bill Kong

Zhang Yimou and Zhang Ziyi          Zhang Ziyi

The Official Japanese Site

The first one is the HERO theme song, also called Ying Xiong (Hero), performed by Wong Fei. The second is called Feng Sha (Wind Sand), performed by Leung Chiu-Wai, who plays Broken Sword in the film. It is not included in the film's soundtracks but footages from the film are included in the music video.

"Feng Sha / Wind San" (Length: 3:09): Hi-Res   Lo-Res