ZiyiZhang Tagged Articles at Cinematical
DVD Info for Lionsgate / Weinstein Castoffs 'Horsemen' & 'Killshot'
Filed under: Action », Drama », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Lionsgate Films », RumorMonger », The Weinstein Co. », Home Entertainment »
Oh, the irony of ironies when the Dennis Quaid serial killer mystery The Horsemen had a tagline that said "Come and see," only to receive an unceremonious dump on something like 75 screens in early March and its first formal review just this week in Variety (and they had to catch it in Paris, apparently!). Box Office Mojo can't even claim any exact figures for what the thing grossed in its very limited run.In similar straits was the Diane Lane/Mickey Rourke thriller, Killshot, which was formally dumped in Arizona and Arizona alone at the end of January. $18,000 on five screens -- way to capitalize on that Wrestler buzz, Weinsteins. But soon, scarcity will matter not for either film, as Fangoria says that the former film will get its DVD release on July 14th, while Amazon claims a May 26th bow for the latter.
There's no word on special features for Killshot yet, which makes me wonder if we'll see any sign of Johnny Knoxville's reportedly excised character... but maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Asian Cinema Scene: Zhang Ziyi as Peking Opera Star
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Music & Musicals », Box Office », Miramax », Cinematical Indie »
Eight years ago, Zhang Ziyi soared into public consciousness as the tempestuous heroine in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She's continued to score in sumptuous epics like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and The Banquet, as well as off-beat pleasures such as Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon. (Let's all try to forget Memoirs of a Geisha, shall we?) In her latest film, which opened in China last week, she plays a Peking Opera singer.
Forever Enthralled is the English title of Mei Lanfang; the name of a real-life, internationally-recognized opera star well-known for playing female roles over the course of a career that lasted more than 50 years. Leon Lai, a veteran Hong Kong actor and pop singer, takes on the challenging assignment to play the legendary character, while Zhang plays fellow performer Meng Xiaodong, who was known for playing bearded men (?!). The two singers met, married, became parents, and divorced, all between 1925 and 1931.
At a press conference (pictured above, thanks to Ziyifilms), Zhang said: "The hardest thing is walking, wearing these really tall boots ... I practiced that for a very long time." All that practice paid off. Variety Asia Online reports that the film is "on course to quality for a hit," though it probably won't break any records.
Chen Kaige directed; years ago he made Farewell My Concubine, * also set in the opera world. More recently he ventured into epic action territory with the spectacular misfire The Promise. My friend Todd Brown at Twitch posted the Forever Enthralled trailer, which looks like a great match of stars, director, and material. IMDb lists Miramax as having US theatrical rights, though it's not listed on their site. I hope we get to see this one without having to wait forever.
* UPDATE: Title corrected. Thanks to Larry for pointing out my mistake.
Hugh Grant and Zhang Ziyi Are 'Lost for Words'
Filed under: Comedy », Foreign Language », Romance », Casting », Universal »
Her first Hollywood production (Things We Lost in the Fire) didn't pan out so good, but perhaps Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier will do better with romantic comedy than with serious drama. She's set to direct Lost for Words, a Universal Pictures release that may star the bumbling Brit Hugh Grant and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. With such diverse international talent , it's easy to imagine that the movie's title will also be a good description of the set between takes.The plot of Lost for Words actually has to do with film set communications. Grant is in negotiations to play a movie star appearing in a film directed by a Chinese woman (Zhang). He develops feelings for her, but unfortunately he initially becomes involved with her flirtatious translator. So, if he's to confess his love for the non-English-speaking filmmaker, he must do so through this other woman, whose heart he must first break. I guess he isn't aware that love is a universal language and he could simply just point to his heart and then to her and then they can have a perfect, wordless affair.
Lost for Words was scripted by Jamie Curtis (Spice World) and Oscar nominee Dan Mazer (Borat). Bier is also kind of an Oscar nominee; her last Scandinavian production, After the Wedding, was up for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Academy Awards.
Ziyi Zhang is 'Waiting'
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Romance », Casting », Scripts », Cinematical Indie »
Back in May, Ziyi Zhang was in talks for a Chinese opera biopic called Mei Lanfang. With filming currently underway on that production, Zhang is looking for her next role, and Variety reports that she may have found it in the long-awaited, aptly-titled Waiting. Based on Ha Jin's National Book Award-winning novel, the English-language adaptation was originally conceived in 2001, for Chow Yun-fat to star in. Now that a number of years have passed, they're looking to a younger generation -- namely Ziyi Zhang and Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) -- to finalize talks. Peter Chan started adapting the novel when it was first tapped for a feature, and the film will still be directed by him once post-production is finished on Warlords.Waiting details the life of a doctor in China's Revolutionary Army who struggles to do what he thinks is right. When his mother is dying, he agrees to an arranged marriage -- with a country woman he finds to look much older than she is, and one who has bound feet. He doesn't love his arranged life and he lives at an army hospital, so he only visits his wife and family once a year. He falls in love with a nurse, but both are bound by Communist law -- he has to be separated from his wife for 18 years before he can divorce her. The couple then wait (hence the title) so that they might consummate their relationship. 18 years...that's dedication.
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