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June 06, 2006
ZHANG ZIYI: FACT OR FICTION?
The two-fisted story of Zhang Ziyi signing a 3-film deal with The Weinstein Company and TWC being involved in a remake of SEVEN SAMURAI (one of Zhang's 3 films) popped up on the internet, was widely reposted, and then debunked. Now it's been picked up by Variety and ScreenDaily and who knows if this is a sign that it's true, or a sign that an internet rumor is worming its way into the real world.
Both ScreenDaily and Variety agree that the deal isn't final yet, but that it's in talks and not just talks but "final talks" (Variety) and they are "close to three-picture deal" (ScreenDaily). Both rags agree that the MULAN picture that's supposed to be part of the deal is the one from Meridian Pictures, a new company run by David Dong, a Chinese multimillionaire with an unfortunate name. It's being written by CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON's and BATTLE OF RED CLIFF's Wang Hui-ling. According to Variety the budget is $20 million, but that can't be right if TWC and Zhang Ziyi get involved.
The most interesting factoid comes from ScreenDaily which says that these movies won't be part of TWC's "Dragon Dynasty" label. Of course not, these movies have a "real" star in them. Which says to me that Dragon Dynasty is going to be the straight-to-video ghetto for TWC's library and the prestige pictures that get a release and a marketing budget will be Weinstein Company movies.
June 6, 2006 at 01:56 PM in News | Permalink
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Comments
I am officially sick of zhang ziyi;
remaking Seven Samurai is the worst idea since the Psycho remake. double that because the Weinsteins are involved;
Looking at the trailer for The Banquet I realized that I am sick of wuxia films unless they were made by Tsui Hark or the Shaw Brothers studios;
I hope Daniel Wu gets to be a big star in the West finally because of the Banquet but I doubt it;
Just some random bitterness from Glenn on a Tuesday.
Posted by: glenn | Jun 6, 2006 2:08:08 PM
Why so down on "Dragon Dynasty"? I hardly consider FIST OF LEGEND or BULLET IN THE HEAD ghetto titles. Yeah, it's a series for catalog releases...
Let's wait and see. If this series is what their claiming it will be - it'll be for genre fans anyway, who cares if they promote it. I'll be buying them if they're proper releases of the films, and that's the main thing.
Posted by: karl | Jun 7, 2006 8:25:54 AM
ziyi this, ziyi that...
how about some love for liu ye, who scored a leading role next to meryl streep et al. in his 1st hollywood flick?
of course, there's always tadanobu asano, and ziyi's "best friend" zhou xun (set to break out as screen lesbian with maggie cheung).
time to spread the hype-love for all the other struggling actors out there:PP
Posted by: ed | Jun 7, 2006 2:30:11 PM