Tag: John Woo

  • ‘Siddharth’ wins top award at Beijing, Wong Kar-Wai takes the cake

    ‘Siddharth’ wins top award at Beijing, Wong Kar-Wai takes the cake

    NEW DELHI: India-shot Canadian film Siddharth by Richie Mehta has won the top prize at the Tiantan Award ceremony held during the closing of the fourth Beijing International Film Festival.

     

    This is the second feature by Mehta, about a father’s search for his son who has gone missing, that has won the ‘Best Feature Film’ at the second edition of the festival’s competition section.

     

    The award was presented by jury president John Woo and director Feng Xiaogang.

     

    However, renowned Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster won five awards, three for ‘Best Director,’ ‘Best Actress’ (Zhang Ziyi) and ‘Best Cinematography’ (Philippe Le Sourd). This is the tenth time the actress has won for her role as a martial artist seeking revenge for the death of her father.

     

    Adding to France’s success at the ceremony, French comedy Attila Marcel picked up two awards: ‘Best Actor’ (Guillaume Gouix) and ‘Best Score.’

     

    Peter Chan’s American Dreams in China won ‘Best Screenplay,’ child actor Lee Re won ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Lee Joon-ik’s Hope, Alan Rickman won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for A Promise and Australia’s The Rocket won Best Special Effects.

     

  • John Woo’s ‘Chinese Titanic’ begins shooting in Beijing

    John Woo’s ‘Chinese Titanic’ begins shooting in Beijing

    MUMBAI: John Woo‘s return to directing after a four-year hiatus with The Crossing is now underway in Beijing, the production companies behind the project announced in a statement.

    The big-budget project is being dubbed as the Chinese Titanic by local Chinese media, and stars a bevy of local A-listers, including Zhang Ziyi, Huang Xiaoming, and Tong Dawei, along with South Korea‘s Song Hye Kyo; Japan‘s Masami Nagasawa; and Taiwan‘s Takeshi Kaneshiro.

    The film will be released in two parts – much like Woo‘s last project, historical epic, Red Cliff (2008), Red Cliff II (2009) – and tells the story of three couples cast aboard a ship in the South China Sea, fleeing China for Taiwan during the 1949 revolution. The screenplay is written by Wang Huiling, best known for co-writing Ang Lee‘s Crouching TigerHidden Dragon and adapting Lust Caution.

    Originally titled 1949, and planned since 2009, the project was reportedly delayed due to challenges in getting the script approved because of political sensitivities in China surrounding any portrayal of the revolutionary era.

    The two-part film is budgeted at $40 million and jointly backed by Beijing Galloping Horse, China Film Group and Zhejiang Huace Film & TV, with Woo and Terence Chang‘s Lion Rock Productions banner attached.

    Woo already has his next film in the works, the long-planned World War II drama Flying Tigers, which is expected to go into production in 2014.