Edko Films whips up Firestorm

Directed by newcomer Alan Yuen, the $20m film revolves around a hardboiled police inspector chasing a notorious criminal crew. Lam Ka Tung (Election) and Hu Jun (Red Cliff) also star in the film, which is produced by Edko Films’ Bill Kong and Andy Lau and is currently shooting.

Yuen, who is known as the scriptwriter of Shaolin, Connected and Rob-B-Hood, is making his directing debut with the film. Kong has been instrumental in developing new directing talent through his Edko Films and Irresistible Films banners. Last year’s Cold War, directed by newcomers Longman Leung and Sunny Luk, was a huge hit in China and Hong Kong.

Edko’s upcoming slate also includes two-part horror omnibus Tales From The Dark, which is also currently in production. The two films comprise three shorts each from directors including Fruit Chan, Lee Chi Ngai, Lawrence Lau and Simon Yam. Further details will be revealed at a press conference on the first day of Filmart (March 18).

Also on Edko’s new slate is Kiwi Chow’s A Complicated Story, which will receive its world premiere during this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 17-April 2).

Produced by Edko Films, Johnnie To’s Milkyway Image and the Hong Kong Film Development Fund, the film revolves around a college student who agrees to be a surrogate mother but changes her mind two months into the pregnancy.

Chow is making her feature directorial debut with the film, adapted from a novel of the same name from Hong Kong writer Yi Shu. Jacky Cheung and Jacqueline Zhu (Lust, Caution) head the cast.

Edko also produced and is selling Xue Xiaolu’s romantic comedy Finding Mr Right, starring Tang Wei (Lust, Caution), as a city girl who travels from Beijing to Seattle to give birth to her married boyfriend’s son. The film opens in Hong Kong and China at the end of March.