It’s rumoured that Zhang Ziyi will star in the Chinese movie version of popular Korean drama Daejanggeum.
According to reports a production company has invited fame director Zhang Yimou to direct the movie with Hollywood in mind, and Ziyi is the hot favourite to play the lead role, which was played by Lee Young-ae in the original drama.
Peter Chan’s new martial arts epic, “The Warlords,” has beaten Ang Lee’s much bankable “Lust, Caution” to secure the No.1 spot at the 2007 Chinese-language box-office.
As of Sunday, “The Warlords” has raked in 260 million yuan (US$35.74 million), ten million more than “Lust, Caution,” the second strongest box-office winner, said a report on Web portal Sina.com.cn.
“The Warlords” is being or has been screened in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. It reaped 200 million yuan on the mainland alone, making Peter Chan the second Chinese director, following Zhang Yimou, to have crossed the 200-million-yuan boundary.
The film, starring Andy Lau, Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei, revolves around the story of three sworn brothers in the Qing Dynasty in the 1860s.
[Cri]
Chinese actress Gong Li is getting popular in Hollywood recently. Since the success of Memoirs of a Geisha in 2005, Gong Li also starred in Miami Vice in 2006, and Hannibal Rising which is scheduled to release in the next couple of months.
Her good friend and international acclaimed director Zhang Yimou has different thoughts on her success, saying that Gong Li should not spend too much time in Hollywood because the roles could not fulfill her potential.
Zhang claimed that there are not much good roles for Asian artists in Hollywood, and most of the opportunities are in commercial movies that lack artistic value.
[Source]