painted skin Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Indie Bites: Rains in the Fall, 'Haaaan!', and a Little 'Painted Skin'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Thrillers », Deals », Distribution », Cinematical Indie »
Check out these bits for your Monday:- It's got to be a bit stressful to screen your film at a fest and watch nothing happen with it for months, or even years. But all is not completely over, especially as the latest news from The Hollywood Reporter will attest. Roadside Attractions has picked up two period films that screened at TIFF -- Before the Rains, which screened this year, and The Fall, which screened in 2006. Rains is about a British man in colonial India in 1937, who has an affair with his Indian servant, while Fall is a fantasy set in the 1920s about a young girl in a hospital who is told stories about heroes on a deserted island by an injured stuntman. Both films will be released next year.
- It looks like the San Francisco-based Viz Pictures likes the idea of men and geishas. Variety reports that the company has picked up Maiko Haaaan!!! for distribution stateside. The hit comedy by Kankuro Kudo is about a geeky salaryman who is obsessed with geisha and tries to infiltrate Kyoto's geisha world. Five lucky cities will get to see the film in March, including New York and San Francisco, with further locales added later.
- Finally, you might remember a certain film that Peter Martin blogged about back in June, one that would be the first cinematic collaboration between Singapore and Hong Kong. Donnie Yen had signed on to star in a big-budget thriller called Painted Skin, and now Variety reports that production has started in Hong Kong. It's a pretty sexy scenario -- there's a "vampire-like" lady who likes to go cannibal on her lovers -- eating their skin and heart. (It's a remake of an old 1965 Hong Kong film.) Since the film began cooking, the budget has jumped to $15 million, and Gordon Chan is now the director. The bloody production will continue through to February -- fitting since it's the month of hearts -- and will get to us in Christmas of 2008, just in time for the red of the holiday. I wonder if they planned it to coincide with such red-themed, and heart-themed holidays...
Donnie Yen to Star in Supernatural 'Skin'
Filed under: Action », Foreign Language », Horror », Independent », Cinematical Indie »
Born in China but raised in Boston, Donnie Yen became a martial arts prodigy at a young age. Returning to China to continue his training, he was soon drafted into the movie business and made his mark during the halcyon age of Hong Kong action flicks (late 80s to early 90s). His Hollywood career hasn't gone beyond supporting roles (Highlander: Endgame, Shanghai Knights) but Western audiences became more familiar with him thanks to Zhang Yimou's Hero, in which Yen dueled Jet Li to the death. Recently Yen completed a string of three films with Hong Kong director Wilson Yip: the sensational Kill Zone, the oft-silly Dragon Tiger Gate and Flashpoint, which is due for release in Asia next month. Yen and Yip will team up again for the just-announced Painted Skin.Painted Skin is notable on a couple of fronts. It's said to be the "first movie collaboration between filmmakers in Singapore and China," according to Channel NewsAsia; Singapore actor Qi Yu Wu has already been lined up to co-star. And it's one of the first Mainland China productions to feature a supernatural theme: the story revolves around a love/hate relationship between a ghostly vixen and a group of humans. Variety notes that "ghosts feature prominently in Chinese literature, but rarely make it to the big screen. Censors have long frowned on the genre for fear it will upset the masses." 'Upsetting the masses' is another way of saying that "secret societies based on arcane beliefs have posed threats to China's power structure for centuries," in the view of author Stefan Hammond, who wrote a fascinating article on the subject a few years ago. In any event, though the female lead has yet to be cast, filming for Painted Skin is expected to begin later this year or early next, with both Wilson Yip and Andy Chin set to direct. With tons of digital effects planned, Yen's new Skin may not make it onto screens until late 2008.
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