Movie Preview: Three Kingdoms - Resurrection of the Dragon
Big-budget Asian epics have lost their novelty about the time Zhang Yimou came out with his “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers”. Now it seems like every Asian filmmaker is going for the “historical action epic” movie, and one of the most highly anticipated is Andy Lau and Maggie Q.’s “Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon”, which is based on the ever-so popular “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novels written by Luo Guangzhong nearly 600 years ago. (John Woo’s own “Battle of Red Cliff” is also based on parts of it.) Variety says “Resurrection of the Dragon” has been budgeted at $20 million, and is now shooting in China under helmer Daniel Lee (”Black Mask”), who also wrote the screenplay adaptation.
First Look at Jet Li and Andy Lau’s THE WARLORDS, Trailer
Via AICN, here’s your first look at a 2-minute battle sequence from the upcoming Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro Chinese war epic “The Warlords”. I gotta admit, I like all those three guys, and the idea of the movie intrigues me, but this video, which is cut in a manner that is intended to “sell” the movie to international buyers (it’s not exactly a trailer) doesn’t do it for me. It looks okay. A big action set piece. But you can see the fake “jabbing” going on — you know, you get 500 people together, give them kinda-real weapons, and tell them to “pretend to fight”, which they do, and it looks like crap in a wide shot. But hey, maybe I’m wrong.
Jet Li, Andy Lau, and $40 Million for “The Warlords”
And you thought Jet Li was done with martial arts movies. Not so, apparently. The “Fearless” star will be headlining the $40 million dollar Chinese epic “The Warlords” alongside Hong Kong wunderkind Andy Lau. Basically you have two guys in one movie whose names make different groups of people swoon — Li for the martial arts crowd, and Lau for the, well, girly crowd. The film is described as a heroic tale of three blood brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval. It is based on “The Assassination of Ma,” a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) story about the killing of general Ma Xinyi. The story was filmed by Zhang Che in 1973 as The Blood Brothers.
Maggie Q. to star in “Five Deadly Venoms” Remake
Here’s something funny: I thought I knew the plot for Chang Cheh’s original 1978 “Five Deadly Venoms” until I read the plot outline on IMDB.com, which informed that I, in fact, knew squatto. Here’s the plot: “A dying teacher instructs his final student to check on the activities of five former pupils, each of whom he taught a unique and special style of kung-fu to: The Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad (hence the title). His final student, who knows a little of each style must team up with one of the other good students to destroy the evil ones if there are any. Greed and treachery ensue as the student discovers that some of the students are indeed evil. But which one can he trust enough to team up with?”