Head over here to check out Marc Walkow’s piece at the Outtake column on Zhang Yimou’s 2002 Jet Li epic, Hero. Frankly I think it’s one of the better films from the director and it’s unfortunate that his most recent film undercuts some of his more glorious work according to some critics.
No, I haven’t seen The Great Wall yet and I’m not holding my breath and penciling it in anytime soon – if it happens, it happens. The film did ultimately earn $171 million dollars in China while scraping some extra change in the U.S. and other territories to top well over $320 million, and so it’s earned Yimou another directing prospect now already underway.
For this, reports of the new film, Shadow, are now abound with an unreleased plot line that otherwise denotes its setting within the Three Kingdoms era. Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Le Vision Pictures are backing the film with a cast that includes Deng Chao, Zheng Kai, Wang Qianyuan, Hu Jun, Guan Xiaotong, Wu Lei and Wang Jingchun.
More casting details are pending according to Variety and presumably this may release next year, so feel free to scratch this one into your calendar for due viewing.