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February 24, 2006

TONY LEUNG LANDS AMERICAN PROJECT

I have deep, and unmanly feelings towards Tony Leung Chiu-wai. One of the things I've always admired is the way he's never sought out an American project, but that's changed and he's now announced that he has a Western film coming up, and you know what? I'm still loving him because this is one of the best stories I've heard about an actor finding a project.

Apparently Tony Leung is a fan of Lawrence Block, the American mystery writer, and while I'm not a huge Block fan I have enjoyed a few of his novels and some of his short stories quite a bit. So while he was in NYC last year doing press for 2046, Leung met with Block and asked him to adapt one of his novels to the screen with Tony in the lead role. Block said "yes" and is now hard at work on a script for Tony Leung based on one of his books, with the lead character changed to an Asian-American.

(Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who pointed this out)

February 24, 2006 at 08:53 AM in News | Permalink

Comments

I have deep, unromantic for feelings for Tony as well...sweeeeet...it's great to see that he's expanding his repertoire even further and not for the money either (presumably). Has the name of the short story on which the film is based been revealed yet? I'd love to read it.

Posted by: Vianne | Feb 24, 2006 11:47:40 AM

The book hasn't been named yet, and I got the feeling the script was going to be based on an existing novel rather than a short story, but it was pretty vague.

Block's weakest fiction (in my humble opinion) is his franchise fiction, like the Matthew Scudder books. But some of his stand-alone novels and his short stories are pretty terrific stuff. I know the Scudder books have their fans, though.

Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Feb 24, 2006 12:15:34 PM

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