ZHANG + SPIELBERG = RUMOR

The popular Steven Spielberg site, Spielberg Films, have cut straight to the chase regarding the "Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou team up and make the coolest JOURNEY TO THE WEST movie ever" rumors that popped up around the internet like little toadstools last week. Calling Spielberg's offices directly, the site reports that the official word is that the Zhang/Spielberg super team-up is not a team-up at all. Saying that Spielberg hasn't decided on his next film, let alone a project two years in the future, the Spielberg offices say: "It's not impossible that something vaguely might have been said which was interpreted that way," but  "...there does not appear to be anything to it."

A day or two later, Zhang Weiping (Zhang Yimou's producer whose comments spawned this rumor), corrected his comments with the following statement (printed on Monkeypeaches):

"Producer Zhang Weiping just told Beijing's Star Daily that the press has miss-understood what he said. He means the if Zhang Yimou and Steven Spielberg were doing a movie, they should pick a Eastern subject such as 'Journey to the West.'"

So there you go. Blame the press.