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May 22, 2006
WEINSTEINS BUY...HUH?
Variety reports that the Weinstein Company has picked up six movies from Mei Ah and it's a head-scratching list:
PTU - Johnnie To's police solidarity movie. Palm owns the US license for this 2003 movie, unless it expired in three years (which is a pretty short license), or Mei Ah has double dipped.
DRAGON SQUAD - no surprise here. This lackluster flick with two or three decent action scenes had heavy involvement from Bey Logan who is acquiring Asian films for the Weinsteins.
FULL ALERT - hopefully this will get a respectful release. One of Ringo Lam's best.
DRAGON FROM RUSSIA - not a very good movie, but certainly weird and watchable. And more Maggie Cheung is always nice.
VICTIM - no word if this is the Ringo Lam horror movie (that's interesting but not great) or the very early Sammo Hung neglected masterpiece.
SKINNY TIGER, FATTY DRAGON - um. Okay.
Looks like TWC is filling up its library to introduce a straight-to-video Asian action line.
(Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who sent this in)
May 22, 2006 at 09:43 AM in News | Permalink
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They can bloody well have DRAGON SQUAD. SKINNY TIGER, FATTY DRAGON they obviously bought because of the title - remember that Miramax bought FLYING DRAGON, LEAPING TIGER (and did nothing with it, natch). Note to aspiring filmmakers: if you can make a movie with Sammo Hung in it that has the words "tiger" and "dragon" in the title, they will buy it. It could be Sammo reading the Washington, DC Craigslist free stuff section for two hours, they'd buy it. Too bad DRAGON HEAT didn't have Sammo or the word "tiger" - I'd love to see them waste money on that unreleasable film (which I actually like, but that doesn't make it releasable). FULL ALERT - a damn shame they bought that, as it's a good film that deserves better. DRAGON FROM RUSSIA - Maggie Chung awareness in the US is up at the moment due to CLEAN... and it has the word "dragon" in the title. They ought to buy DRAGON BALL: THE MAGIC BEGINS. VICTIM, I assume that's the Ringo Lam film, because I don't think Mei Ah has the Sammo Hung classic, and they also bought FULL ALERT. These guys are so predictable - this has to mean that they're gonna buy the Tsui Hark/Ringo Lam/Johnnie To JIGSAW project. That sucks, but it's the only reason I can think of that they'd go on a Ringo Lam buying spree at this point, he's been low-profile for a while now? And if it's called JIGSAW, people will think it's got something to do with SAW, so they'll move a ton of pre-orders from retailers who don't know any better. Predictable. FROM THE DIRECTOR OF JIGSAW comes DRAGON VICTIM!!!
Posted by: Rhythm-X | May 22, 2006 10:24:46 AM
Dragon Squad? That's one I won't mind seeing molder in the Weinstein dungeon. I think Dragon Squad was made by the same people that made the Pokemon cartoons that caused epileptic seizures in children, only without the depth and chracter development. I tried to folow the plot for a while, and decided there really wasn't any need.
On the flip side, props for using Michael Biehn, just on principal.
Posted by: David Austin | May 22, 2006 11:46:21 AM
"Looks like TWC is filling up its library to introduce a straight-to-video Asian action line."
Or to do what they did at Miramax: shelve 'em so no one else can have them, or release them disemboweled...anything to further hamper Asian films' progress in the U.S.
Doesn't make sense, I know. But a company's actions speak louder than their words.
"Hollywood is not about money. It's about ego." -- Orson Welles
Posted by: Ric Meyers | May 22, 2006 11:51:30 AM
Buying them so no one else can have them makes sense... but was there really about to be a bidding war for SKINNY TIGER, FATTY DRAGON? Only one thing makes sense: they're basing their purchases solely on the titles and cast listings of the films and nothing else. "Hey, that's the Asian chick who was in CLEAN! Man, I wish we had bought CLEAN! And it's got DRAGON in the title! Just like CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON! Let's grab it - this has to be hot!" And there's simply no explaining the PTU purchase - as of last July Palm Pictures had it, but now there's almost no trace of it on their website. If they sold the rights to Weinstein Company, why did WC buy it from Mei Ah and not Palm? I can only assume Palm lost the rights because they didn't do anything with it within a given timeframe - though I am basing that theory on absolutely nothing but wild & unfounded speculation. Bey Logan says that Harvey Weinstein is a huge fan of Asian films. I think he's a huge fan of movies with certain words in the title. Before he changes the title, of course.
Posted by: Rhythm-X | May 22, 2006 4:34:13 PM
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