Huo Yuanjia Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The grandson of Kung-Fu master Huo Yuanjia, portrayed by Jet Li in his new film, Fearless, filed a lawsuit last week against the film's producers and distributors in an effort to halt Fearless' release. According to Huo Shoujin (who, by the way, along with the elder Huo's sons and other grandsons, doesn't exist in the film - Li's Huo has no decedents), the film "contains numerous fabrications about his grandfather's life and besmirches his reputation," though the lawsuit offers no specifics about said fabrications and besmirchments. The decedents of the elder Huo have previously complained about film's depiction of his upbring as posh, whereas in fact their grandfather was poor as a boy. Huo is demanding both a "written apology," and that the film be pulled from release (it's already out in a lot of Asian territories, and will hit Japan, the US, Germany, Korea, and France later this year).

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's always been my understanding that filmmakers are allowed to take a whole lot of license with their fictional projects. Hell, if the all-powerful William Randolph Hearst couldn't stop Citizen Kane (at least not through legal channels), it's unlikely this case will go anywhere. At least, it better not - if courts started to set precedents whereby the relatives of those portrayed in fiction films control content via lawsuits, all hell would break loose.*

*The angry cannibal case from earlier this month is different, because that decision was based not on the film's content, but on the fact that its presence in the public discourse might affect an on-going trial.

Rogue Pictures, a genre division of Focus Features, has picked up the American rights to Jet Li's latest hit, Fearless. The film, which dominated the box offices of Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia when it opened last weekend, is the story of martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia and his "triumph...in his personal and physical battles to become the most famous Chinese fighter around the turn of the 20th century."

Working against the film's potential success in the US, however, are a couple of obstacles. First of all, Rogue's track record is awful. Of the nine films (including Unleashed, which also starred Li) they have distributed to this point, only one - Shaun of the Dead - has been successful. Though I respect them a ton for picking up Orgazmo, it's hard to call it (or, for example, Seed of Chucky and Trippin', both of which Rogue also released) a good movie. Another potential stumbling block is the fact that so few Americans are familiar with Huo Yuanjia that his story could prove to be a hard sell. On the other hand, the film looks exciting, and Li has a solid base of followers. In addition, the rumor that this will be his last martial arts role may make that base even bigger than it already is.

Rogue plans to have Fearless in theaters, well, some time between now and 2007. We'll try to keep you posted.