All articles by Liz Shackleton – Page 164
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Avex Asia appoints Koo to head production arm
Avex Asia, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Japan's Avex Group, has established a film production armto be headed by former Applause Pictures executive Esther Koo. Koo, who has been named headof film development, will be responsible for generating film productions in Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan. Based in Hong ...
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Hong Kong selects Banquet; Taiwan chooses Cha Cha
Hong Kong has selected period epic The Banquet as its entry for the best foreign-language filmcategory of next year's Academy Awards.The film, directed by China's Feng Xiaogang, is a co-production between Hong Kong's Media Asia and Beijing-based Huayi Brothers. It recently premiered atVenice and has grossed $13m across Chinese-speaking territories ...
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Fortune Star producing Dead Air with Chen
Production started today onthriller Dead Air which acclaimedfilmmaker Teddy Chen is producing for Star Group's Fortune Star Entertainment.The high-definition featureis directed by newcomer Xavier Lee and stars hot up-and-coming actors DerekTsang, Tong Ling, Terence Yin, Jo Koo and Raymond Wong. The film will have anexclusive TV premiere on Star Chinese ...
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Asia feasts on Feng Xiaogang's Banquet
Chinese director FengXiaogang's $20m The Banquet had astrong four-day opening weekend across Asia, grossing $8.5m from five territories.The lavish $20m costumedrama, loosely based on Hamlet and starring Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Wu, recentlypremiered out-of-competition at Venice and opened across Chinese-speaking territories on Sep 14. The film has already becomethe highest-grossing ...
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Fortune Star acquires China Star library
Regional broadcaster StarGroup's content arm, Fortune Star, has acquired 100 library titles from Hong Kong's China Star Entertainment Group, in a deal valued at $18m. Most of the titles wereproduced in the past five years by China Star production subsidiaries OneHundred Years of Film, China Star Pictures and S&W. The ...
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Yamada to direct World War II drama for Shochiku
Japanese major Shochiku isproducing the next film from Yoji Yamada following his acclaimedsamurai trilogy - a World War II drama with the working title Kabei, set to star veteran actressSayuri Yoshinaga. Based on the non-fictionnovel Chichi Eno Requiem, written byTeruyo Nogami, the film is set in 1940s Tokyo and follows ...
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Hong Kong set to lose only arthouse cinema
Hong Kong's only dedicated arthouse cinema, the Cine-ArtHouse, is facing closure as its owner Sil-Metropole Organisation is havingdifficulty renewing the lease.The two-screen cinema, locatedat the Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, programmes mainland Chinese, foreign-language and other kinds of arthouse and specialist cinema. It has ...
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Jia's Still Life added to Venice competition
Chinese director JiaZhangke's Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) has been added to thecompetition section of this year's Venice International Film Festival, whichwraps on Saturday.Shot in the village of Fengjie on the Yangtze River, the film is set in the very near future when thevillage has been submerged by the Three Gorges ...
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Focus joins One Ton on Wisit's Armful
Hong Kong's Focus Films is teaming up with Singapore-based OneTon Cinema to co-produce Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng's upcoming film Armful. The Chinese-languagestylised tragicomedy will feature a pan-Asian cast, most likely from Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Thailand. Set in 1970s South-East Asia, the film's influences range from Chinese martialarts films ...
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Bet Collector scoops top prizes at Cinefan
The Bet Collector, directed by the Philippines' Jeffrey Jeturian, was awarded best film and bestactress for Gina Pareno's performance in the Asian Competition at Osian'sCinefan in New Delhi on Sundaynight. Pareno plays a middle-agedhousewife who collects bets for the illegal game of 'jueteng' in the film,which also picked up ...
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Warner China Film unveils local release slate
Following its success with thedistribution of Ning Hao's black comedy CrazyStone, Warner China Film HG Corporation has announced its release slate forthe rest of the year. Produced by Hong Kong star Andy Lau's Focus Films, CrazyStone opened in China on June 30 and has grossed more than $1.5m (RMB12m)to date, ...
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India's Cinefan opens with Valley Of Flowers
The 8th Osian'sCinefan (July 14-23) held its opening gala in Delhi on Saturday night, followedby the world premiere of France and India-based director Pan Nalin's Valley Of Flowers.A co-production between India, France, Japan and Germany, the film is a love story that spans two centuriesfrom the early 19th century to ...
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Hong Kong action maestros set to draw Triangle
Three of Hong Kong's leadingaction directors - Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To - are gearing up to worktogether on an innovative action thriller with the working title Triangle. Each of the three directorswill be responsible for around 30 minutes footage of the $5m film, withoutforewarning the others what ...
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Golden Harvest to raise $13m for mainland cinemas
Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Entertainment plans to raise $12.9m(HK$100m) through the sale of convertible debt to fund its new cinemas anddigital screen advertising business in mainland China. Half the notes will be soldto existing shareholder Hanny Holdings while Golden Harvest chairman RaymondChow and another investor, Li Ka-shing, will each buy ...
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Q&A with Shanghai jury president Luc Besson
In the same year that Canneshad its first Chinese jury president in Wong Kar-wai, China's leading filmfestival returned the honour by appointing a French jury president - filmmakerand EuropaCorp co-founder Luc Besson. In addition to his juryduties, Besson had a packed schedule of meetings with filmmakers, film studentsand government officials ...
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Shanghai unveils plans for new studio facility
Shanghai Media andEntertainment Group has unveiled ambitious plans to build a studio andentertainment complex on the outskirts of the city as competition to lure overseasproductions heats up. Located in Songjiangdistrict in the south-west of the city, the proposed Shanghai Studios Entertainment Citywill encompass full-service production studios - including sound stages ...
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Hong Kong's EMP teams with Shanghai Film Studio
Hong Kong's Emperor Motion Pictures and Shanghai Film Studiohave formed a joint venture encompassing film production and talent management.The joint venture, SFSEmperor Cultural Development Co, aims to produce five features and at least oneTV series by the end of 2007, with the first films to be announced next month.It will ...
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Shanghai film festival gets off to glittering start
Judging by the openingweekend, the Shanghai International Film Festival (June 17-25) is finallystarting to take advantage of its position as mainland China's leading film festival and industry platform.Past editions have struggledto attract stars or premieres - mostly because of restrictions and otherproblems in the Chinese movie market - but the ...
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Emperor crowns Chan as production chief
In a move that was widely anticipated,Hong Kong's Emperor Motion Pictures has appointed filmindustry veteran Philip Chan as head of production. Chan, a former actor who haswritten, directed and produced more than 20 features during his 30-year career,will oversee all production activities for the company. "Philip already has a numberof ...
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Celestial's Shaw Bros titles set for release in Iran
Hong Kong's Celestial Pictures has sealed exclusive deals withIran's Century 21 VMC, Portugal's Lusomundo and the Netherlands' Dutch Film Works, which extend the distribution ofits Shaw Brothers library to 56 countries. Century 21 VMC will presentmore than 100 Shaw Brothers titles on home video and television, in a dealwhich marks ...