Another major film distributor’s output is staying within the corporate ecosystem with a pact at the sibling streamer. AMC Networks-owned IFC Films has signed Pay 1 (post-theater window) output deal with AMC+ as part of AMC Networks’ efforts to boost its flagship streaming platform.
Beginning May 6, AMC+ is launching Friday night movie night, featuring a new feature direct from theaters, every Friday, from IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Rlje Films and Shudder, all sister businesses of the streamer. The films will be available on AMC+ 90 days after their theatrical release and, in some cases, day and date with their premiere in theaters.
The initiative kicks off May 6 with crime drama Clean, starring Adrien Brody and RZA, followed by revenge thriller Catch the Fair One on May 13, Riley Stearns’ Sundance pic Dual, starring Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul on May 20, and The Banquet, from Shudder and IFC Midnight, on May 27. The...
Beginning May 6, AMC+ is launching Friday night movie night, featuring a new feature direct from theaters, every Friday, from IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Rlje Films and Shudder, all sister businesses of the streamer. The films will be available on AMC+ 90 days after their theatrical release and, in some cases, day and date with their premiere in theaters.
The initiative kicks off May 6 with crime drama Clean, starring Adrien Brody and RZA, followed by revenge thriller Catch the Fair One on May 13, Riley Stearns’ Sundance pic Dual, starring Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul on May 20, and The Banquet, from Shudder and IFC Midnight, on May 27. The...
- 4/26/2022
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
The latest Talk is held in partnership with the Dinard Festival of British Film.
The latest in our series of ScreenDaily Talks will discuss the rise of genre filmmaking in the UK by women directors.
Filmmakers such as Corinna Faith (The Power), Prano Bailey Bond (Censor), Ruth Platt (Martyrs Lane), Ruth Paxton (The Banquet), Romola Garai (Amulet) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud) are playing with horror and genre tropes to probe a series of female-led issues and garnering arthouse plaudits as they do so.
The Talk will explore what is driving the flare in female genre filmmaking, the local and international market for these films,...
The latest in our series of ScreenDaily Talks will discuss the rise of genre filmmaking in the UK by women directors.
Filmmakers such as Corinna Faith (The Power), Prano Bailey Bond (Censor), Ruth Platt (Martyrs Lane), Ruth Paxton (The Banquet), Romola Garai (Amulet) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud) are playing with horror and genre tropes to probe a series of female-led issues and garnering arthouse plaudits as they do so.
The Talk will explore what is driving the flare in female genre filmmaking, the local and international market for these films,...
- 9/23/2021
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Leading US genre festival Beyond Fest has set a slate of programming comprising 39 features ahead of its return to theaters between September 29 and October 11.
The festival will open with the West Coast premiere of Julia Ducornau’s Palme d’Or Winner Titane, which will be screened from a never-before-seen 35mm print. The fest is also presenting the US premiere of David Gordon Green’s anticipated Blumhouse slasher, Halloween Kills—the 12th chapter in the iconic Halloween franchise, which had its world premiere in Venice.
Other major festival titles screening are Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Cannes horror pic Lamb, and Gaspar Noé’s Vortex. V/H/S 94, The Black Phone, Earwig, Travelling Light, South of Heaven, The Seed, The Feast, The Banquet are also on the lineup.
As part of its Icons of Cinema series, the festival will also present screenings of past films from Michael Mann (Collateral and Thief), Udo Kier...
The festival will open with the West Coast premiere of Julia Ducornau’s Palme d’Or Winner Titane, which will be screened from a never-before-seen 35mm print. The fest is also presenting the US premiere of David Gordon Green’s anticipated Blumhouse slasher, Halloween Kills—the 12th chapter in the iconic Halloween franchise, which had its world premiere in Venice.
Other major festival titles screening are Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Cannes horror pic Lamb, and Gaspar Noé’s Vortex. V/H/S 94, The Black Phone, Earwig, Travelling Light, South of Heaven, The Seed, The Feast, The Banquet are also on the lineup.
As part of its Icons of Cinema series, the festival will also present screenings of past films from Michael Mann (Collateral and Thief), Udo Kier...
- 9/16/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
I always look forward to finding out what Beyond Fest has wrangled up each year, not just for the crop of current and new festival faves but for their top shelf rep programming as well. We'll get to that in a moment, but first, the newbs. First of all there is the world premiere of Aharon Keshales' noir South of Heaven, starring Jason Sudekis and Evangeline Lilly. That's cool. Then there is Cannes champion Titane, horror sequel Halloween Kills and The Black Phone. You will also get to see The Feast, The Banquet and Lamb. The fourth chapter of the V/H/S anthology V/H/S/94 will also play at the festival. Of course, this is all happening in and around Hollywood so expect lots of filmmakers and...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/16/2021
- Screen Anarchy
Welcome to this week’s Monday Night Raw review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have…what the… Batman: Robin is in bed with me. Robin: Where am I? Batman: Good morning, Dick. Robin: Ed Sullivan! Help! Ed Sullivan: We’ve got a rally big shoo! Robin: Help me, you dip-s—t! Ed Sullivan: Sha me the munnay! Robin: Ahhhhhh!!!!!! Batman: It goes in your butt! Me: Oh no you don’t! I’ll save you Robin! Here comes Chevy! Chevy Chase: Welcome to The Chevy Chase Show! Batman: Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! (head explodes) Ed Sullivan: Wunna fugg wid da man, huh?! Chevy Chase: S—ter’s full! Me: (shoots both men) I’ll have what she’s having! Robin: Thank you, young lady. Me: What?! (shoots Robin) F—k you! I had the surgery! Raw starts… (awakes from a dream) Whoa! Freaky! Robin: What’s up,...
- 3/16/2021
- by Nathan Favel
- Nerdly
Roster of participants includes 44 female producers out of 73 in total.
The latest projects from producers of French Exit and The Babadook are among the roster at the virtual 15th Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (iff) set to run from September 13-14.
The co-financing and co-production market takes place in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and serves international and Canadian producers developing mostly English-language projects.
The two-day schedule includes networking opportunities for producers with international sales agents, financiers, distributors, agents, and executive producers, as well as an exclusive state-of-the-industry panel discussion, producer drop-in sessions, and access to a TIFF case study on co-productions.
The latest projects from producers of French Exit and The Babadook are among the roster at the virtual 15th Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (iff) set to run from September 13-14.
The co-financing and co-production market takes place in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and serves international and Canadian producers developing mostly English-language projects.
The two-day schedule includes networking opportunities for producers with international sales agents, financiers, distributors, agents, and executive producers, as well as an exclusive state-of-the-industry panel discussion, producer drop-in sessions, and access to a TIFF case study on co-productions.
- 9/1/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Roster of participants includes 44 female producers out of 73 in total.
The latest projects from producers of French Exit and The Babadook are among the roster at the virtual 15th Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (iff) set to run from September 13-14.
The co-financing and co-production market takes place in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and serves international and Canadian producers developing mostly English-language projects.
The two-day schedule includes networking opportunities for producers with international sales agents, financiers, distributors, agents, and executive producers, as well as an exclusive state-of-the-industry panel discussion, producer drop-in sessions, and access to a TIFF case study on co-productions.
The latest projects from producers of French Exit and The Babadook are among the roster at the virtual 15th Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (iff) set to run from September 13-14.
The co-financing and co-production market takes place in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and serves international and Canadian producers developing mostly English-language projects.
The two-day schedule includes networking opportunities for producers with international sales agents, financiers, distributors, agents, and executive producers, as well as an exclusive state-of-the-industry panel discussion, producer drop-in sessions, and access to a TIFF case study on co-productions.
- 9/1/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Roster of participants includes 44 female producers out of 73 in total.
The latest projects from producers of French Exit and The Babadook are among the roster at the virtual 15th Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (iff) set to run from September 13-14.
The co-financing and co-production market takes place in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and serves international and Canadian producers developing mostly English-language projects.
The two-day schedule includes networking opportunities for producers with international sales agents, financiers, distributors, agents, and executive producers, as well as an exclusive state-of-the-industry panel discussion, producer drop-in sessions, and access to a TIFF case study on co-productions.
The latest projects from producers of French Exit and The Babadook are among the roster at the virtual 15th Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (iff) set to run from September 13-14.
The co-financing and co-production market takes place in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and serves international and Canadian producers developing mostly English-language projects.
The two-day schedule includes networking opportunities for producers with international sales agents, financiers, distributors, agents, and executive producers, as well as an exclusive state-of-the-industry panel discussion, producer drop-in sessions, and access to a TIFF case study on co-productions.
- 9/1/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
This last week in April has seen, with Avengers: Endgame and the Battle of Winterfell episode of Game of Thrones, the culmination on the largest scale possible in our fractured culture of a long-simmering trend in American action filmmaking away from color in favor of a grim, murky, monochrome darkness. The TV show was immediately criticized for being nigh unwatchable on a normal television, its images being so dark and cluttered with digital artifacts, while the Marvel movie chose to stage its splash page final battle, the climax of a decade of franchise-building, not as a triumph of four-color majesty but as a dull smear of muddy gray. I’m not sure where exactly the trend started, it might have been when Tim Burton’s shadowy Batman movies outpaced Warren Beatty’s lively Dick Tracy, or it might have been when the pseudo-realism of Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan...
- 5/11/2019
- MUBI
Legendary director Tsui Hark returns to direct the third film in the immensely successful series, which has racked up over Usd$200m at the box office and bagged 20+ major award nominations with a star-studded cast that is just as award-worthy. “Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings” is coming to UK cinemas 27th July. Keep updated online: www.DetectiveDee3.com
Synopsis
Detective Dee (Mark Chao) is appointed by Emperor Gaozong to protect the Tang Dynasty from rival Empress Wu (Carina Lau) and is bestowed with the magical Dragon Taming Mace. Wu orders Yuchi Zhenjin (Feng Shaofeng) of the Golden Gard to recruit five mystics and task them with stealing the threatening Mace, the consequence of which is capital punishment for Dee.
Storming the Department of Investigation, Wu orders a demonstration of sorcery power which goes horrifically wrong with deadly consequences. In the confusion, Yuchi Zhenjin is seen killing colleagues of the Golden Gard.
Synopsis
Detective Dee (Mark Chao) is appointed by Emperor Gaozong to protect the Tang Dynasty from rival Empress Wu (Carina Lau) and is bestowed with the magical Dragon Taming Mace. Wu orders Yuchi Zhenjin (Feng Shaofeng) of the Golden Gard to recruit five mystics and task them with stealing the threatening Mace, the consequence of which is capital punishment for Dee.
Storming the Department of Investigation, Wu orders a demonstration of sorcery power which goes horrifically wrong with deadly consequences. In the confusion, Yuchi Zhenjin is seen killing colleagues of the Golden Gard.
- 7/12/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 4, 2014
Price: DVD $24.98, Blu-ray $29.99
Studio: Anchor Bay and The Weinstein Company
Tony Leung is The Grandmaster.
Written and directed by acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar Wai (Happy Together), the 2013 biographical action epic The Grandmaster tells the story of martial-arts master Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee.
Asian superstar Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs) portrays legendary Kung Fu master Ip Man, who survived the turmoil of 1930s China to change the world of martial arts forever. The film covers his life in 1930s Foshan, his flight to Hong Kong after the second Sino-Japanese War, and the events leading to his death in 1972.
This visually stunning saga of love, honor and vengeance, featuring breathtaking action choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (Legend of the Black Scorpion), also stars Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and Chang Chen (Red Cliff)
The PG-13-rated film is currently available on all major digital retailers,...
Price: DVD $24.98, Blu-ray $29.99
Studio: Anchor Bay and The Weinstein Company
Tony Leung is The Grandmaster.
Written and directed by acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar Wai (Happy Together), the 2013 biographical action epic The Grandmaster tells the story of martial-arts master Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee.
Asian superstar Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs) portrays legendary Kung Fu master Ip Man, who survived the turmoil of 1930s China to change the world of martial arts forever. The film covers his life in 1930s Foshan, his flight to Hong Kong after the second Sino-Japanese War, and the events leading to his death in 1972.
This visually stunning saga of love, honor and vengeance, featuring breathtaking action choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (Legend of the Black Scorpion), also stars Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and Chang Chen (Red Cliff)
The PG-13-rated film is currently available on all major digital retailers,...
- 1/22/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Since the release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, wuxia films have clearly become a popular genre in Chinese filmmaking. Feng Xioagang's Legend of the Black Scorpion had all the ingredients to be a worthy successor of Cthd. However, the film's problem is its storyline.
Feng Xiaogang's film is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In 907 Ad, the Tang dynasty is in decline. Li (Ge You) murders his brother, the Emperor. Afterwards, Li takes the power and also Empress Wan (Zhang Ziyi). Moreover, Li also dispatches assassins to kill Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu), who's in exile studying dance and music.
Because she loves the prince and she's only four years older than him, the Empress also sends assassins to protect the prince. Even in the palace, the prince also escapes all the Emperor's assassination plans. In order to celebrate the 100th day of his reign, the Emperor will organize a banquet.
Feng Xiaogang's film is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In 907 Ad, the Tang dynasty is in decline. Li (Ge You) murders his brother, the Emperor. Afterwards, Li takes the power and also Empress Wan (Zhang Ziyi). Moreover, Li also dispatches assassins to kill Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu), who's in exile studying dance and music.
Because she loves the prince and she's only four years older than him, the Empress also sends assassins to protect the prince. Even in the palace, the prince also escapes all the Emperor's assassination plans. In order to celebrate the 100th day of his reign, the Emperor will organize a banquet.
- 12/27/2010
- by anhkhoido@gmail.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
Shanghai -- Harvey Weinstein drew tough criticism at the Shanghai International Film Festival forum on Sunday from popular Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, who accused him of promising financial backing then backing away.
"Harvey is a cheater in the eyes of many Chinese moviemakers," said Feng, whose credits in the region include "Dream Factory" and "If You Are the One." The director, whose films are not as well known in the West, did not offer any specific charges.
Weinstein didn't exactly invite goodwill at the discussion by making a brief appearance there himself, only to leave abruptly, shake Feng's hand and excuse himself to catch a plane.
"Let me talk about Harvey, now that he's gone," Feng teased the crowd of a few hundred, mostly-Chinese industry observers gathered at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The attack, in absentia, proved lively and finally led to a broader discussion of Sino-Hollywood cooperation, hitting issues...
"Harvey is a cheater in the eyes of many Chinese moviemakers," said Feng, whose credits in the region include "Dream Factory" and "If You Are the One." The director, whose films are not as well known in the West, did not offer any specific charges.
Weinstein didn't exactly invite goodwill at the discussion by making a brief appearance there himself, only to leave abruptly, shake Feng's hand and excuse himself to catch a plane.
"Let me talk about Harvey, now that he's gone," Feng teased the crowd of a few hundred, mostly-Chinese industry observers gathered at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The attack, in absentia, proved lively and finally led to a broader discussion of Sino-Hollywood cooperation, hitting issues...
- 6/13/2010
- by By Jonathan Landreth
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shanghai Film Studios/Hus Entertainment
Prince of the Himalayas is that rara avis in the world of cinema -- a film that is genuinely new and different.
Shanghai-born director and co-writer Sherwood Hu has adapted Shakespeare's Hamlet to the rugged highlands of ancient Tibet. A cast composed entirely of Tibetan actors, speaking in their own tongue -- a movie first as far as anybody can tell -- gives this exhilarating epic in an authenticity even if the antique world depicted largely is one of the imagination.
Prince was made almost simultaneously with The Banquet (2006), in which one of China's most commercial directors, Feng Xiaogang, adapted the dark tale of the Prince of Denmark to A.D. 907 China. That film was all pomp and flash with an inert story at its core. Hu's version, though, is a vigorous and muscular entertainment that played to enthusiastic sold-out audiences at the recently wrapped AFI Fest. The film certainly plays to American audiences if Hu can hook up with an adventurous distributor.
Unique among Hamlet interpreters, Hu offers a sympathetic portrait of the king's killer, his brother (Dobrgyal), and Hamlet's mother (Zomskyid), who are seen as victims rather than villains. The prince, too, has undergone a major shift in that his quest turns out to be less to determine the killer and seek revenge than a search for his own identity. Purba Rgyal, trained as a singer and dancer but not an actor, attacks the role of the prince with such energy and abandon that he overcomes his lack of experience.
Cinematographers Cheng Yuanhai and Shao Dan move the camera constantly, as if so in awe of the savage landscape and all the gold jewelry and costumes of animal skins and exotic fabrics that it can't stop searching for new wonders. At times, the film overflows with its heated rhetoric and emotions running amok, but Hu's strong emphasis on spirituality breathes life anew into a magnificent old war horse.
Prince of the Himalayas is that rara avis in the world of cinema -- a film that is genuinely new and different.
Shanghai-born director and co-writer Sherwood Hu has adapted Shakespeare's Hamlet to the rugged highlands of ancient Tibet. A cast composed entirely of Tibetan actors, speaking in their own tongue -- a movie first as far as anybody can tell -- gives this exhilarating epic in an authenticity even if the antique world depicted largely is one of the imagination.
Prince was made almost simultaneously with The Banquet (2006), in which one of China's most commercial directors, Feng Xiaogang, adapted the dark tale of the Prince of Denmark to A.D. 907 China. That film was all pomp and flash with an inert story at its core. Hu's version, though, is a vigorous and muscular entertainment that played to enthusiastic sold-out audiences at the recently wrapped AFI Fest. The film certainly plays to American audiences if Hu can hook up with an adventurous distributor.
Unique among Hamlet interpreters, Hu offers a sympathetic portrait of the king's killer, his brother (Dobrgyal), and Hamlet's mother (Zomskyid), who are seen as victims rather than villains. The prince, too, has undergone a major shift in that his quest turns out to be less to determine the killer and seek revenge than a search for his own identity. Purba Rgyal, trained as a singer and dancer but not an actor, attacks the role of the prince with such energy and abandon that he overcomes his lack of experience.
Cinematographers Cheng Yuanhai and Shao Dan move the camera constantly, as if so in awe of the savage landscape and all the gold jewelry and costumes of animal skins and exotic fabrics that it can't stop searching for new wonders. At times, the film overflows with its heated rhetoric and emotions running amok, but Hu's strong emphasis on spirituality breathes life anew into a magnificent old war horse.
- 11/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shanghai International Film Festival
SHANGHAI -- The evocative title might mislead one to imagine Shanghai Red as one of those pre-Liberation epics like A Time to Remember (1998) or a propaganda film about the fiery days of the Cultural Revolution. In fact, the film is an attempt at an Eastern La femme Nikita with an interracial romantic twist set in contemporary Shanghai.
As a U.S.-Chinese co-production with Shanghai Film Group Corp., the film could gain theatrical release in China and draw in crowds curious about how their own city appears in a Hollywood film. Beyond that, some Asian-American festivals also might consider it for their selection.
Vivian Wu (The Pillow Book, Eve and the Fire Horse) plays Meili, an interpreter who becomes an angel of vengeance when her husband is shot dead on his way to sign a joint-venture contract. The appearance of an enigmatic American who claims to be a kind of troubleshooter for companies draws her into a web of deceit, love and guilt.
Still ravishing after all these years, Wu is the biggest interest-sustaining factor in the film. She gives subtle gradations in performance for the three phases and identities in her life but still maintains continuity of personality in spite of the film's more contrived moments, like when Meili slips into a scarlet red cheongsam and dons wide-brimmed Ray-Bans -- that really helps her blend in with the crowd when being tailed by the police on her way to assassinate her adversaries!
Director Oscar Luis Costo (Wu's husband) is a recognized Hollywood producer, so production quality is what one would expect of Hollywood. Costume and production design are thoughtfully consistent, with the film's color schemes of green, red and gray conceived to reflect the three stages and states of mind of the female protagonist.
However, the script is compromised by an attempt to make the film accessible to both American and Asian audiences by throwing together a mixed cast from U.S., Hong Kong and China. Ge You (To Live, The Banquet), a superstar in China, gets only a cameo role as the inscrutable boss, with little to do except look shady. Kenny Bee, once a Hong Kong heartthrob and now a veteran actor, spends most of his time playing a corpse or a ghostly apparition.
Richard Burgi (Hostel: Part II), on the other hand, gets the most screen time as the international love interest. Although he looks the part as the handsome "man of mystery," he and Wu have as much chemistry as a fish and a bicycle. She hits off much better with Sun Honglei (The Road Home, "Zhou Yu's Train"), another well-known Chinese actor who plays her defense lawyer in the film's overlapping narrative.
Although their interaction takes place exclusively in the confined space of a prison, it generates more dramatic tension as the two alternate roles as confessor and confidant, judge and therapist. Yet any attempt at psychological penetration is distracted by all the action, suspense, romance and Shanghai city tours that fill up the film's running time.
Moviegoers who choose this film for a bit of Oriental mystique will get their money's worth, from panoramic views of the Bund to lessons on how to eat xiaolongbao (soup-filled dumpling), with some modern images of snazzy, skyscraper-filled Shanghai thrown in. Those looking for the essence of Shanghai had better stick to Lou Ye's Suzhou River.
SHANGHAI RED
MARdeORO Films Inc. USA/Shanghai Film Group Corp.
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Oscar Luis Costo
Director of photography: Adam Kane
Producer: Ren Zhonglun
Production designer: Jeff Knipp
Music: Randy Miller
Editor: Josh Muscatine
Cast:
Zhu Meili: Vivian Wu
Michael Johnson: Richard Burgi
The Lawyer: Sun Honglei
The Boss: Ge You
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SHANGHAI -- The evocative title might mislead one to imagine Shanghai Red as one of those pre-Liberation epics like A Time to Remember (1998) or a propaganda film about the fiery days of the Cultural Revolution. In fact, the film is an attempt at an Eastern La femme Nikita with an interracial romantic twist set in contemporary Shanghai.
As a U.S.-Chinese co-production with Shanghai Film Group Corp., the film could gain theatrical release in China and draw in crowds curious about how their own city appears in a Hollywood film. Beyond that, some Asian-American festivals also might consider it for their selection.
Vivian Wu (The Pillow Book, Eve and the Fire Horse) plays Meili, an interpreter who becomes an angel of vengeance when her husband is shot dead on his way to sign a joint-venture contract. The appearance of an enigmatic American who claims to be a kind of troubleshooter for companies draws her into a web of deceit, love and guilt.
Still ravishing after all these years, Wu is the biggest interest-sustaining factor in the film. She gives subtle gradations in performance for the three phases and identities in her life but still maintains continuity of personality in spite of the film's more contrived moments, like when Meili slips into a scarlet red cheongsam and dons wide-brimmed Ray-Bans -- that really helps her blend in with the crowd when being tailed by the police on her way to assassinate her adversaries!
Director Oscar Luis Costo (Wu's husband) is a recognized Hollywood producer, so production quality is what one would expect of Hollywood. Costume and production design are thoughtfully consistent, with the film's color schemes of green, red and gray conceived to reflect the three stages and states of mind of the female protagonist.
However, the script is compromised by an attempt to make the film accessible to both American and Asian audiences by throwing together a mixed cast from U.S., Hong Kong and China. Ge You (To Live, The Banquet), a superstar in China, gets only a cameo role as the inscrutable boss, with little to do except look shady. Kenny Bee, once a Hong Kong heartthrob and now a veteran actor, spends most of his time playing a corpse or a ghostly apparition.
Richard Burgi (Hostel: Part II), on the other hand, gets the most screen time as the international love interest. Although he looks the part as the handsome "man of mystery," he and Wu have as much chemistry as a fish and a bicycle. She hits off much better with Sun Honglei (The Road Home, "Zhou Yu's Train"), another well-known Chinese actor who plays her defense lawyer in the film's overlapping narrative.
Although their interaction takes place exclusively in the confined space of a prison, it generates more dramatic tension as the two alternate roles as confessor and confidant, judge and therapist. Yet any attempt at psychological penetration is distracted by all the action, suspense, romance and Shanghai city tours that fill up the film's running time.
Moviegoers who choose this film for a bit of Oriental mystique will get their money's worth, from panoramic views of the Bund to lessons on how to eat xiaolongbao (soup-filled dumpling), with some modern images of snazzy, skyscraper-filled Shanghai thrown in. Those looking for the essence of Shanghai had better stick to Lou Ye's Suzhou River.
SHANGHAI RED
MARdeORO Films Inc. USA/Shanghai Film Group Corp.
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Oscar Luis Costo
Director of photography: Adam Kane
Producer: Ren Zhonglun
Production designer: Jeff Knipp
Music: Randy Miller
Editor: Josh Muscatine
Cast:
Zhu Meili: Vivian Wu
Michael Johnson: Richard Burgi
The Lawyer: Sun Honglei
The Boss: Ge You
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- CineAsia on Thursday honored mainland Chinese director Feng Xiaogang and American producer Barbara Robinson of Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, for tireless promotion of their respective movie traditions.
Feng, director of The Banquet, Hong Kong's pick this year for Oscar consideration, gave the first CineAsia visionary award to Robinson for her production of some of the best internationally respected Chinese films of the last two decades, including four-time Oscar winner Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). The presentation took place Thursday, the last day of the 14th edition of the regional industry trade show.
A retrospective reel screened in her honor included Crouching Tiger director Ang Lee blowing Robinson kisses and director Zhang Yimou, with whom she worked on his seminal Raise the Red Lantern, saying, "Barbara, you played a fundamental role in popularizing Chinese cinema worldwide. Thank you."
In accepting the award, Robinson, who first arrived in China in 1984, acted as her own interpreter, speaking first in Mandarin, "Because this award honors my work in China," a country that she said had changed the direction of her life.
Feng, director of The Banquet, Hong Kong's pick this year for Oscar consideration, gave the first CineAsia visionary award to Robinson for her production of some of the best internationally respected Chinese films of the last two decades, including four-time Oscar winner Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). The presentation took place Thursday, the last day of the 14th edition of the regional industry trade show.
A retrospective reel screened in her honor included Crouching Tiger director Ang Lee blowing Robinson kisses and director Zhang Yimou, with whom she worked on his seminal Raise the Red Lantern, saying, "Barbara, you played a fundamental role in popularizing Chinese cinema worldwide. Thank you."
In accepting the award, Robinson, who first arrived in China in 1984, acted as her own interpreter, speaking first in Mandarin, "Because this award honors my work in China," a country that she said had changed the direction of her life.
- 12/7/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Huayi Bros. Film Investment Co. has landed China distribution rights to Blood Brothers, a John Woo and Terrence Chang production from CMC Entertainment of Taiwan, executives said here Wednesday.
One of the first Asian deals announced at the American Film Market, the inaugural sale of the $10 million, 1930s-set Shanghai action movie marks John Woo's return to his native China as a producer, said Felice Bee, Huayi Brothers Features executive manager of sales and co-production.
"We are excited to be bringing the John Woo brand into China even if he isn't directing," Bee said, adding that early footage from shooting begun in Shanghai in October showed that director Alexi Tan, a Woo protege, will bring the veteran's spirit to the film.
Blood Brothers stars Taiwanese actress Shu Qi; her countryman Chang Chen; mainland China actor Liu Ye, who recently played opposite Meryl Streep in Dark Matter; and Hong Kong's Daniel Wu, one of the leads opposite Zhang Ziyi in Huayi Bros.' The Banquet.
Bee said details of Huayi's deal for Blood Brothers were ironed out between Huayi CEO Wang Zhongjun and CMC with help from CMC adviser Ming Tu of 20th Century Fox at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea in October.
One of the first Asian deals announced at the American Film Market, the inaugural sale of the $10 million, 1930s-set Shanghai action movie marks John Woo's return to his native China as a producer, said Felice Bee, Huayi Brothers Features executive manager of sales and co-production.
"We are excited to be bringing the John Woo brand into China even if he isn't directing," Bee said, adding that early footage from shooting begun in Shanghai in October showed that director Alexi Tan, a Woo protege, will bring the veteran's spirit to the film.
Blood Brothers stars Taiwanese actress Shu Qi; her countryman Chang Chen; mainland China actor Liu Ye, who recently played opposite Meryl Streep in Dark Matter; and Hong Kong's Daniel Wu, one of the leads opposite Zhang Ziyi in Huayi Bros.' The Banquet.
Bee said details of Huayi's deal for Blood Brothers were ironed out between Huayi CEO Wang Zhongjun and CMC with help from CMC adviser Ming Tu of 20th Century Fox at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea in October.
- 11/2/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Huayi Bros. Film Investment Co. has landed China distribution rights to Blood Brothers, a John Woo and Terrence Chang production from CMC Entertainment of Taiwan, executives said here Wednesday.
One of the first Asian deals announced at the American Film Market, the inaugural sale of the $10 million, 1930s-set Shanghai action movie marks John Woo's return to his native China as a producer, said Felice Bee, Huayi Brothers Features executive manager of sales and co-production.
"We are excited to be bringing the John Woo brand into China even if he isn't directing," Bee said, adding that early footage from shooting begun in Shanghai in October showed that director Alexi Tan, a Woo protege, will bring the veteran's spirit to the film.
Blood Brothers stars Taiwanese actress Shu Qi; her countryman Chang Chen; mainland China actor Liu Ye, who recently played opposite Meryl Streep in Dark Matter; and Hong Kong's Daniel Wu, one of the leads opposite Zhang Ziyi in Huayi Bros.' The Banquet.
Bee said details of Huayi's deal for Blood Brothers were ironed out between Huayi CEO Wang Zhongjun and CMC with help from CMC adviser Ming Tu of 20th Century Fox at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea in October.
One of the first Asian deals announced at the American Film Market, the inaugural sale of the $10 million, 1930s-set Shanghai action movie marks John Woo's return to his native China as a producer, said Felice Bee, Huayi Brothers Features executive manager of sales and co-production.
"We are excited to be bringing the John Woo brand into China even if he isn't directing," Bee said, adding that early footage from shooting begun in Shanghai in October showed that director Alexi Tan, a Woo protege, will bring the veteran's spirit to the film.
Blood Brothers stars Taiwanese actress Shu Qi; her countryman Chang Chen; mainland China actor Liu Ye, who recently played opposite Meryl Streep in Dark Matter; and Hong Kong's Daniel Wu, one of the leads opposite Zhang Ziyi in Huayi Bros.' The Banquet.
Bee said details of Huayi's deal for Blood Brothers were ironed out between Huayi CEO Wang Zhongjun and CMC with help from CMC adviser Ming Tu of 20th Century Fox at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea in October.
- 11/2/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet, starring Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Wu, is the official candidate from Hong Kong for a best foreign-language nomination for the 2006 Academy Awards, while Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower, starring Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li, will represent China, it was announced Friday. Both films were made by directors from mainland China and feature the country's two best-known actresses, and they are both costume dramas set in ancient Chinese courts. Banquet and Golden Flower were each co-produced by companies based in Hong Kong, the former British colony that reverted to Chinese control in 1997.
- 9/29/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SEOUL, South Korea -- For weeks in South Korea, Hollywood has been in short supply. No Hollywood film has taken the No. 1 spot since the July 7 debut of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest." In fact, no Hollywood film has even made the top 5 here since Monster House came in fourth on Aug. 18. But last weekend brought an unofficial record when no Hollywood films at all landed in the nation's top 10. Seven of the top 10 films were Korean, with the No. 3 slot going to the debut of Chinese costume epic The Banquet, No. 9 to Pedro Aldomovar's Volver and No. 10 to the Japanese disaster film The Sinking of Japan. Instead of Hollywood, Koreans have flocked to films like Song Hae-sung's melodrama Maundy Thursday ($13.5 million since its Sept. 14 release) and the comedy Marrying the Mafia 3 ($8.22 million since Sept. 21). Just below those hits, the top-10 has been filled with a variety of mid-level successes including Like a Virgin, Between Love and Hate and No Mercy for the Rude.
- 9/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- A strong opening for Zhang Ziyi starrer The Banquet on Friday saw a domestic film move to the head of China's boxoffice chart for the first time after a summer dominated by Hollywood imports. Led by Mission: Impossible III, China's boxoffice from June 9-Aug. 31, took in a record-breaking 400 million yuan ($50 million), according to preliminary boxoffice returns. Banquet will have to sell an unprecedented number of tickets to catch the 81 million yuan ($10.1 million) earned by MI:3 despite a delayed release, widespread piracy and government censors chopping out roughly seven minutes. MI:3 was followed by Warner Bros.' Superman Returns with 60.2 million yuan ($7.5 million) and 20th Century Fox's Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties with 55 million ($6.9 million), local media and the studios reported.
- 9/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- What if someone threw a fabulous banquet and forgot the food? The mesmerizing but often empty martial arts epic The Banquet -- from China's most commercial director, Feng Xiaogang -- leaves you feeling that way. The cast includes top actors from the Chinese and Hong Kong film industries, headed by Ziyi Zhang. Oscar-winning designer Tim Yip weighs in with astonishing period costumes and art direction, making each sequence a strikingly beautiful painting. Renowned composer Tan Dun offers such a lush, complex score that you could close your eyes and listen joyously to this movie. Best of all, the world's best action choreographer, Yuen Wo-Ping, might have topped himself with fights that are more balletic than brutal.
But Banquet fritters away this opportunity with a cliched, long-winded, logic-busting, overacted film that at times seems like a parody of the martial arts genre. The film certainly will enjoy a high-profile ride on the festival circuit and win playdates the world over because of its embarrassment of production riches. Yet story and characters are virtually inert.
You can't fault the source material. The writers lift everything except the title from Hamlet. Motives and goals in some cases have been altered, but in general outline the film follows Shakespeare's play closely.
The backdrop is the ancient Chinese kingdom of 907, where treachery and palace revolts rule a cruel land so that dynasties seemingly last no more than a fortnight. The latest turmoil arises with the sudden death of the emperor. Suspicion falls on his ambitious brother Li (Ge You), who seizes the throne and takes his brother's young, beautiful wife, Empress Wan (Ziyi), as his wife. All he has to do now is eliminate his brother's son, Prince Wuluan (Daniel Wu), a melancholy lad who has a sexual thing for his stepmother so he has exiled himself from court in a dance and music colony in the wilderness.
When the new emperor's assassins reach the colony, the movie kicks into gear with its first and actually best fight sequence: Masked actor-dancers elude the swords of the assassins with acrobatic moves rather than weapons, and fighters magically appear from all quarters. Feng does like more blood than most Chinese directors, leaning more toward Quentin Tarantino than Zhang Yimou or Ang Lee. Still, the sequence is heavily stylized with much flying, athletic stunts, slow motion and bravura midair spins. Despite the spraying blood, the sequence is closer to a Gene Kelly dance number than a traditional fight scene.
The prince does escape his fate, however, and improbably turns up at the palace. Here he mopes around and picks fights with the empress and his intended, Qing Nu (Zhou Xun), who is willing to die for love. Dramatic action now shutters to a halt for extended, wheel-spinning scenes of scheming, counterscheming and suspect declarations of love. In other words, the martial arts epic turns into a soap opera.
The acting too grows strained except for Ziyi, who comes across as the most modern of the characters. Survival is the empress' game, and Ziyi lets you see the cunning beneath the coquette.
The dinner long promised by the film's title does finally bring blood and death but precious little action. Three deaths are by poison and another is achieved with a quick thrust of a knife. Talk about ending with a whimper rather than a bang.
As if to signal this is all a joke, a final death by thrown knife occurs with no perpetrator in sight. Perhaps a metaphysical murder? Or maybe the director himself did it.
THE BANQUET
Huayi Brothers Pictures/Media Asia Films
Credits:
Director: Feng Xiaogang
Screenwriters: Sheng Heyu, Qiu Gangjuian
Producer: Wang Zhongjun, John Chong
Executive producer: Yuen Wo-Ping, Wang Zhonglei
Director of photography: Zhang Li
Production/costume designer: Tim Yip
Music: Tan Dun
Action choreography: Yeun Wo-Ping
Editor: Liu Miaomiao
Cast:
Empress Wan: Ziyi Zhang
Emperor Li: Ge You
Prince Wuluan: Daniel Wu
Qing Nu: Zhou Xun
General Yin: Huang Xiaoming
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 131 minutes...
But Banquet fritters away this opportunity with a cliched, long-winded, logic-busting, overacted film that at times seems like a parody of the martial arts genre. The film certainly will enjoy a high-profile ride on the festival circuit and win playdates the world over because of its embarrassment of production riches. Yet story and characters are virtually inert.
You can't fault the source material. The writers lift everything except the title from Hamlet. Motives and goals in some cases have been altered, but in general outline the film follows Shakespeare's play closely.
The backdrop is the ancient Chinese kingdom of 907, where treachery and palace revolts rule a cruel land so that dynasties seemingly last no more than a fortnight. The latest turmoil arises with the sudden death of the emperor. Suspicion falls on his ambitious brother Li (Ge You), who seizes the throne and takes his brother's young, beautiful wife, Empress Wan (Ziyi), as his wife. All he has to do now is eliminate his brother's son, Prince Wuluan (Daniel Wu), a melancholy lad who has a sexual thing for his stepmother so he has exiled himself from court in a dance and music colony in the wilderness.
When the new emperor's assassins reach the colony, the movie kicks into gear with its first and actually best fight sequence: Masked actor-dancers elude the swords of the assassins with acrobatic moves rather than weapons, and fighters magically appear from all quarters. Feng does like more blood than most Chinese directors, leaning more toward Quentin Tarantino than Zhang Yimou or Ang Lee. Still, the sequence is heavily stylized with much flying, athletic stunts, slow motion and bravura midair spins. Despite the spraying blood, the sequence is closer to a Gene Kelly dance number than a traditional fight scene.
The prince does escape his fate, however, and improbably turns up at the palace. Here he mopes around and picks fights with the empress and his intended, Qing Nu (Zhou Xun), who is willing to die for love. Dramatic action now shutters to a halt for extended, wheel-spinning scenes of scheming, counterscheming and suspect declarations of love. In other words, the martial arts epic turns into a soap opera.
The acting too grows strained except for Ziyi, who comes across as the most modern of the characters. Survival is the empress' game, and Ziyi lets you see the cunning beneath the coquette.
The dinner long promised by the film's title does finally bring blood and death but precious little action. Three deaths are by poison and another is achieved with a quick thrust of a knife. Talk about ending with a whimper rather than a bang.
As if to signal this is all a joke, a final death by thrown knife occurs with no perpetrator in sight. Perhaps a metaphysical murder? Or maybe the director himself did it.
THE BANQUET
Huayi Brothers Pictures/Media Asia Films
Credits:
Director: Feng Xiaogang
Screenwriters: Sheng Heyu, Qiu Gangjuian
Producer: Wang Zhongjun, John Chong
Executive producer: Yuen Wo-Ping, Wang Zhonglei
Director of photography: Zhang Li
Production/costume designer: Tim Yip
Music: Tan Dun
Action choreography: Yeun Wo-Ping
Editor: Liu Miaomiao
Cast:
Empress Wan: Ziyi Zhang
Emperor Li: Ge You
Prince Wuluan: Daniel Wu
Qing Nu: Zhou Xun
General Yin: Huang Xiaoming
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 131 minutes...
A body double who starred in a nude scene for Memoirs Of A Geisha star Ziyi Zhang has demanded her name appear in the credits. The actress, Shao Xiaoshan, revealed in her internet blog that she was paid $2,448 to feature in Zhang's latest movie The Banquet, which will be released in China later this year. The blog, which was reprinted in the Chinese press, details how director Fang Xiaogang is refusing to answer her calls despite being "very satisfied" with her body. She said, "I just want everyone to know Zhang's back is mine." However, the film's producers are reportedly confused by the actress's grievances as the film has not even been released. Wang Zhongjun of Huayi and Taihe Movie Investment Company said, "The film has not been shown to the public. How can Shao know her name is not included in the credits."...
- 7/11/2006
- WENN
BEIJING -- Japan's Gaga Distribution has paid $5 million at the American Film Market for distribution rights to top Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's latest film The Banquet, starring Zhang Ziyi, Beijing-based producers Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co. said Monday. "The deal is confirmed", Leah Xu, a Beijing-based vp of Huayi Bros, one of China's leading independent film production companies, which is handling its own international distribution with Media Asia of Hong Kong. "Other deals are still being processed."...
- 11/8/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- Japan's Gaga Distribution has paid $5 million at the American Film Market for distribution rights to top Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's latest film The Banquet, starring Zhang Ziyi, Beijing-based producers Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co. said Monday. "The deal is confirmed", Leah Xu, a Beijing-based vp of Huayi Bros, one of China's leading independent film production companies, which is handling its own international distribution with Media Asia of Hong Kong. "Other deals are still being processed."...
- 11/8/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- Japan's Gaga Distribution has paid $5 million at the American Film Market for distribution rights to top Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's latest film The Banquet, which stars Zhang Ziyi, Beijing-based producers Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co. said Monday. "The deal is confirmed," Leah Xu, a Beijing-based vp of Huayi Bros, one of China's leading independent film production companies, which is handling its own international distribution with Media Asia of Hong Kong. "Other deals are still being processed," Xu added. The deal, believed to be a record presale from a Japanese distributor for a Chinese film, will come as welcome news to the Chinese filmmakers. The Banquet, which is currently shooting, like most Chinese films had no completion guarantor, and went $5 million over its initial $20 million budget in September (HR 9/2). Huayi Brothers -- which made the Hong Kong hit Kung Fu Hustle with Sony Pictures Entertainment -- are co-producing Banquet -- dubbed by Xu as an "Asian version of Hamlet" - in partnership with Media Asia. Leading actor Ge You has appeared in six films by Feng, including such hits as Big Shot's Funeral and Cell Phone. Zhang will next be seen in Princess Racoon by Japan's Seijun Suzuki, and Memoirs of a Geisha, by Rob Marshall for Spyglass Entertainment.
- 11/8/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- Japan's Gaga Distribution has paid $5 million at the American Film Market for distribution rights to top Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's latest film The Banquet, which stars Zhang Ziyi, Beijing-based producers Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co. said Monday. "The deal is confirmed," Leah Xu, a Beijing-based vp of Huayi Bros, one of China's leading independent film production companies, which is handling its own international distribution with Media Asia of Hong Kong. "Other deals are still being processed," Xu added. The deal, believed to be a record presale from a Japanese distributor for a Chinese film, will come as welcome news to the Chinese filmmakers. The Banquet, which is currently shooting, like most Chinese films had no completion guarantor, and went $5 million over its initial $20 million budget in September (HR 9/2). Huayi Brothers -- which made the Hong Kong hit Kung Fu Hustle with Sony Pictures Entertainment -- are co-producing Banquet -- dubbed by Xu as an "Asian version of Hamlet" - in partnership with Media Asia. Leading actor Ge You has appeared in six films by Feng, including such hits as Big Shot's Funeral and Cell Phone. Zhang will next be seen in Princess Racoon by Japan's Seijun Suzuki, and Memoirs of a Geisha, by Rob Marshall for Spyglass Entertainment.
- 11/7/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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