SPL PRODUCERS ON TRIAL, WU JING ON HOLD

This is sort of old news, and I've only been able to pick up bits and pieces of the story, so chime in if you've got anything to add.

One of the big questions surrounding SHA PO LANG, last year's stripped-down, lightning fast Hong Kong action flick, was what happened to Wu Jing? His performance was a scene-stealer and for those of us who've been waiting for him to become a star it looked certain that he'd be able to capitalize on this role and really go places. Sammo Hung went right into DRAGON SQUAD (whoops!), Donnie Yen went on to do DRAGON TIGER GATE, Simon Yam went on to ELECTION and ELECTION 2, but what happened to Wu Jing?

Well, it turns out that some people involved in Abba, the company that produced and originally repped SPL, were arrested in a 24 hour sting called "Sounding Arrow" for the embezzlement (basically) of HK$100 million. One of them was Chan Tat-chee, aka Uncle Ba, who founded Abba and is Wu Jing's godfather. A trial date is still being set, but Uncle Ba decided it was prudent to pull all his investments, including his money that was invested in Wu Jing's next project.

According to the Wu Jing fansite, he's now set to star in an upcoming film about Xanda, the Chinese underground fighting art, and he's training in Beijing as you read this. Ronald Cheng is set to co-star as is Miki of the Cookies. This doesn't make me too happy since Tsui Hark once made a Xanda movie, called XANDA, and the finished project was perhaps one of his least-watchable movies ever.

(Thanks to the Wu Jing Fansite for the news)