EMP adds Stool Pigeon to star-studded AFM slate

Co-produced by Sil-Metropole Organisation, the $4.13m (HK$32m) film is directed by Dante Lam and stars Nick Cheung and Nicholas Tse. The trio also worked together on The Beast Stalker, a critically-acclaimed action thriller which was a hit in Hong Kong and received wide play on the festival circuit.

In The Stool Pigeon, Cheung plays a cop, while Tse takes on the role of an ex-con turned police informant who tries to infiltrate the triads. In The Beast Stalker, Tse was the cop and Cheung played a ruthless hitman. The Stool Pigeon is slated for a summer 2010 release.

The film joins previously announced projects Shaolin and Jiang Wen’s Let The Bullets Fly on EMP’s slate. Shaolin is a $30m action drama, directed by Benny Chan and starring Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse, which is being filmed with the cooperation of the legendary Shaolin monastery.

Jiang’s project, an action comedy in which he also stars with Chow Yun-fat and Ge You, marks the acclaimed filmmaker’s move into genre territory.

EMP is also selling Derek Yee’s Triple Tap – an action drama starring Louis Koo, Daniel Wu, Charlene Choi and Li Bingbing. Currently in production, the film revolves around a cop who believes that a local hero who foils an armed robbery may not be as innocent as he at first appears.

The slate marks EMP’s biggest production push in over a year. “It’s just coincidence that we have so many films to launch at the same time – we were waiting for the right elements to come together,” says EMP CEO Albert Lee.

Earlier this year, EMP’s Shinjuku Incident, directed by Derek Yee and starring Jackie Chan, premiered at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The company has also been stepping up distribution activities, co-distributing titles such as Departures and The Time Traveler’s Wife with Lark Films Distribution in Hong Kong.