Sony Pictures Classics is handing wuxia fans an encore presentation with Ang Lee’s decorated 2000 release, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in theaters everywhere on February 17. The studio made the announcement several days ago via social media and a brand-new trailer which you can view at the bottom of the page.
Years ago, I became obsessed with listing my “top-tens” or “fives” in final fight scenes. There was a UK website that produced such lists and for their final fight scene list, it bothered me for the longest time that it never had the one featured in Drive between Mark Dacascos and Masaya Kato, so you can imagine how fulfilled I felt when the page loaded and I finally saw it listed.
Invariably one of the most fun screenings I had last year was director Daniel Lee’s The Climbers, a compelling and epic survival drama with Wu Jing and Zhang Ziyi. It’s a film that this website is especially proud to have reviewed with respect to now sharing the frontal artwork for its home release in a quote from our review in September.
Not to many formalities here… Just a great, big, grand-scale and epic AF official trailer to share for the North American release of Daniel Lee’s new survivalist adventure opus, The Climbers. Fans can check out this release in IMAX in sync with its China roll out on September 30 before a wide theatrical release on October 4.
A festive mood in Shanghai encompassed a raft of reveals this weekend, including the first official teaser for The Climbers. Rejoining director Daniel Lee and producer Tsui Hark, the film is officially poised for a September 30 release.
This news already dates back a few months when Twitter rumors began circulating over Jackie Chan’s involvement in a Wu Jing-led biopictoral climbing action epic. Alas, The Hollywood Reporter is now freshly confirming out of Hong Kong that Climbers is now underway, reteaming Chan with Jing eight years since co-starring in Andy Lau’s Benny Chan kung fu actioner, Shaolin.
The crowd at CCXP this year in Brazil got plenty of reason to stay hyped before anyone else with a tease signaling the newest official trailer now out for Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. The weekend tease was already enough to pull us in and the footage we now have collects for us on that promise tenfold, featuring a grandshowcase of our titular sci-fi monster protag and the line-up of gigantic creatures whose presence have completely flipped the script on mankind’s place in the universe.
Actress Zhang Ziyi (Hero, 2046, The Grandmaster) is back and upping the ante with a role now forthcoming in the upcoming sequel to Gareth Edwards’s monster hit, Godzilla. Legendary has closed a deal for the actress to star in a role that will have her outfitted within the covert Monarch organization in a story set several years following the events of the 2014 film.
Zhang will be joined by Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown and Bradley Whitford, along with returning actor Watanabe Ken. Michael Dougherty will direct from a his own script written with scribe Zach Shields for its March 22, 2019 release prior to Adam Wingard’s pending Monsterverse follow-up production, Godzilla Vs. Kong which opens on May 22, 2020.
Ziyi is a Golden Globe award-winning actress with BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her role in Rob Marshall’s 2005 drama, Memoirs Of A Geisha, as well as BAFTA nominations for period Chinese wuxia martial arts epics, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Zhang Yimou’s House Of Flying Daggers. She is represented by ICM Partners and Mosaic.
Aside from all its accolades, director Wong Kar Wai‘s most recent kung fu epic, The Grandmaster, is probably the most lauded by critics for the tedious approach its helmer has taken to bring about a perfect version, of which there have already been several in the past year or so. Nontheless, Wong took it upon himself earlier this year to take the film back under the knife once more for a 3D conversion announced earlier this year in the hopes of creating a more streamlined and cohesive film, one that will likely be much more shorter than its original Chinese release. Alas, the newly 3D-converted film will be getting a 111-minute duration with some newer footage for its China audience beginning on January 8, 2015.
SYNOPSIS (from TWC):
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, THE GRANDMASTER is an epic action feature inspired by the life and times of the legendary kung fu master, Ip Man. The story spans the tumultuous Republican era that followed the fall of China’s last dynasty, a time of chaos, division and war that was also the golden age of Chinese martial arts. Filmed in a range of stunning locations that include the snow-swept landscapes of Northeast China and the subtropical South, THE GRANDMASTER features virtuoso performances by some of the greatest stars of contemporary Asian cinema, including Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang.
The film also probably marks the last time any of us sees Zhang in a martial arts role unless she plans on surprising us somewhere down the line, in which case, I personally don’t mind. As for The Grandmaster 3D, I certainly hope that this version takes kindly to the needs of the niche both at home and abroad; Aside from seeing master Yuen Woo-Ping‘s masterful choreography on sheer display, clearly the China version was better, and the critics have all agreed and it’s high time they were listened to…that is provided that a U.S. release is also in order.
Check out the trailer below along with the new posters in the following album, and feel free to visit Wong’s official blog for more insight and extra content.
H/T: Indiewire
It’s taken a few years to get off the ground, but the latest long-awaited project, The Great Wall, finally found a new director back in March with Going Home and Hero helmer Zhang Yimou left since The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick’s departure. This month now following previous casting efforts, the project is looking to bring Matt Damon on board, according to Deadline.
Damon, recently confirmed to return to the fray as Jason Bourne for a new film with Paul Greengrass, may star in an epic story set in 15th century China about British warriors who come across the titular wall during its construction in lieu of a threat greater than the Mongols. The actor is among those in an accumulating list that tentatively casts Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel), Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and Zhang Ziyi (The Grandmaster).
Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro are producing the script for Legendary East, a division of Legendary Pictures, in conjunction with China Film Company. Max Brooks conceived the story with Legendary CEO Thomas Tull who is producing with Chuck Roven, Jon Jashni and Alex Gartner, and Peter Loehr and Jillian Share who are executive producing.
Tull’s Legendary Pictures is also behind the releases of Crimson Peak (October 16, 2015), Seventh Son (February 6, 2015), and Jurassic World (June 12, 2015), and the forthcoming productions of Godzilla 2 and Pacific Rim 2.
Stay tuned for more info!
Filming is expected to kick off this Spring under helmer and legendary action filmmaker Yuen Woo-Ping, from script by John Fusco based on the pentalogy of classic novels by Wang Du Lu. The film will star returning actress, international leading lady of action Michelle Yeoh, and actors Xiaoming and action star Donnie Yen, the latter two who previosuly appeared together with Sammo Hung and Darren Shahlavi in the Wilson Yip-directed eponymous martial arts action biopic, Ip Man 2.
It has been announced that actress Zhang Ziyi is back in the fray for a role in the Spring 2014 filming of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2: The Green Destiny. Entertainment Weekly reports the actress may reprise her role as Jen Yu, the youthful kung fu warrioress who takes a leap of faith off of the side of Wudang Mountain, spiriting herself away at the end of the first film, the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee and released in 2000. The film will reportedly utilize Zhang‘s role in flashbacks to explain what happened to her character after the first film.
Also returning to the set next year will be actress and international action star Michelle Yeoh reprising her role as noble swordswoman Yu Shu Lien, joined by fellow Wing Chun and Butterfly And Sword co-star, international action sensation Donnie Yen who will play the character, Silent Wolf. The film, adapted from late author Wang Du Lu’s acclaimed pentalogy of novels whose rights were won by the Weinstein Company back in January, will be based on a script by John Fusco, with helmer and legendary action director Yuen Woo-Ping.
Zhang currently stars in The Weinstein Company’s upcoming limited theatrical release of Wong Kar-Wai’s latest biopictoral kung fu epic feature on acclaimed Wing Chun grandmaster, Ip Man. On Thursday, it was reported that Wong’s long awaited film has officially been endorsed by Oldboy co-star Samuel L. Jackson, granting the film’s official North American title, Martin Scorsese And Samuel L. Jackson Present: The Grandmaster.
Stay tuned for more info.
Photo: Btchflcks
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