All articles by Liz Shackleton – Page 184
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Golden Harvest takes The Grudge
Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest has become one of the first international distributors to sign on for Ghost House Pictures' remake of Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge (Ju-On). The company has acquired Hong Kong and Malaysian rights to the film which will be the second production from Ghost House, ...
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Taipei film festival unveils 5th edition line-up
The Taipei Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its fifth edition (March 9-22) which includes a special focus on cinema from Australia and Japan. Among the eight films that will screen in the Australian New Current section are four from Tony Ayres, including last year's critical hit Walking On ...
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Hong Kong - the sequel means business
With box office for local films down by nearly 25%, last year marked a low point for the Hong Kong film industry. So it's hardly surprising that filmmakers are now revisiting familiar material. At least three sequels are set to start shooting in Hong Kong over the next few months ...
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TVB sells majority stake in Galaxy to Intelsat
Hong Kong broadcaster TVB has announced a deal to sell a 51% stake in its long-delayed pay-TV platform, Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting, to US satellite services provider, Intelsat. The deal clears the way for Galaxy to be launched in the third quarter of this year, presenting Hong Kong's dominant pay-TV operator, ...
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Celestial to launch 24-hour Chinese movie channel in March
Hong Kong's Celestial Pictures is set to roll out its 24-hour Chinese movie channel, Celestial Movies, in Malaysia and Brunei on March 3, with launches in other territories around the world to follow over the coming year. The channel will be carried on Malaysian satellite platform Astro, which is majority ...
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Seafood director cooks up second feature with Century Hero
The second feature from award winning Chinese director Zhu Wen - South Of The Clouds - is scheduled to start shooting in Tianjin in northern China next week, with backing from state-owned studio Century Hero Film Investment. The US$363,000 (RMB3m) film, also scripted by Zhu, tells the story of a ...
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Infernal Affairs leads Hong Kong Film Award nominations
Hit crime thriller Infernal Affairs leads the race for the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards with 16 nominations including best film, best director, for Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, and an impressive five nods in the best actor and supporting actor categories. The Media Asia production, which topped the Hong ...
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Wong Kar-Wai set for 2046 wrap
WongKar-Wai's long-gestating 2046 is finally back in production in China and Hong Kong andis set to wrap at the end of March for delivery in time for this year's Cannes.The $15m film has been in and out of production since Wong shot In The MoodFor Love three yearsago, although the ...
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Taiwan's Golden Horse festival under threat
The future of Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival and awards ceremony is again looking uncertain as a group of legislators are seeking to axe the event's entire budget. Taiwan's parliament has passed the second reading of a motion, brought by 13 legislators of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), to cut ...
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Hong Kong box office slumps 17% in 2002
Hong Kong's box office slumped by 17% in 2002, despite a year-end boost from hits such as Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets and locally-produced crime thriller Infernal Affairs.Total box office receipts were $110.6m (HK$862.6m) compared to $133.4m (HK$1.04bn) the previous year, according to figures from industry body, the ...
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Hero performs heroically in Asian openings
Zhang Yimou's Hero broke box office records when it opened in China last Friday (December 20), grossing more than $1.45m (RMB12m) in a single day from 200 screens.According to distributor Beijing New Picture Film Co, the martial arts epic - known as Ying Xiong in Chinese - broke house records ...
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Post-Soviet Russia film wins at Taiwan documentary fest
A film about a remote but beautiful area of post-Soviet Russia, On The Edge Of Time: Male Domains In The Caucasus, was awarded the grand prize at this year's Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF), which was held in Taipei from December 5-15.Produced by Germany's Applause Film Media, the 90-minute film ...
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Singapore's MediaCorp forms joint venture with Hong Kong's CosMedia
Singapore's MediaCorp and Hong Kong-based ad sales company CosMedia Group have formed a joint venture - CosMediaCorp Ltd - to distribute television programming produced by Chinese state-owned enterprise, China Great Wall Art and & Culture Centre. China Great Wall - a member of the China Radio, Film and Television Group ...
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Infernal Affairs has record-breaking Hong Kong opening
Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs grossed an astounding $330,000 (HK$2.57m) when it opened in its home territory on Thursday night (December 12) - the biggest opening of the year in Hong Kong and the biggest opener of all time outside a public holiday.By the end of the weekend (Dec ...
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Major Cineplex to launch Thailand's biggest cinema
Thailand's leading exhibitor, Major Cineplex, has been awarded a contract to operate the country's largest entertainment complex - housing 16 screens and more than 4,000 seats - which will form part of a mammoth shopping and leisure development to be built in the heart of downtown Bangkok.The ambitious $139m (baht ...
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Warner Bros makes first foray into Chinese-language film production
Warner Bros is making its first foray into Chinese-language film production with an adaptation of best-selling illustrated love story, Turn Left, Turn Right, to be written and directed by one of Hong Kong's most successful filmmaking teams - Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai. Japanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro will star in ...
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Fox takes Hero for a host of Asian territories
Zhang Yimou's $31m martial arts epic Hero is set for a wide release across Asia via Twentieth Century Fox which has acquired a slew of Asian rights to the film outside China and Hong Kong.Territories snapped up by Fox include India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan. The ...
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Hong Kong approves local film guarantee fund
The Hong Kong government has approved a $6.4m (HK$50m) Film Guarantee Fund which is designed to help local companies obtain bank loans for film production. Only two changes have been made to initial proposals for the fund. The government issued a consultation paper in October recommending that the fund only ...
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Hero under the hammer
In an unusual move, Chinese video rights to Zhang Yimou's widely-anticipated martial arts epic Hero were sold at an auction last week in Beijing, where they fetched a record-breaking $2.15m (RMB17.8m).Around 18 companies paid a deposit of $36,000 (RMB300,000) to join the bidding, which started at $965,000 (RMB8m). The film ...
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Hero gets the Chinese Oscar nod, opens today to qualify
Zhang Yimou's highly-anticipated $31m martial arts epic, Hero, has been selected as China's candidate for the best foreign-language Oscar.The film is opening today (Oct 24) for a seven-day qualifying run on a single screen in Shenzhen, in southern China. In order to qualify for next year's Oscars, the picture must ...