New York – Ahead of the release of The Forbidden Kingdom, the first film from The Weinstein Company’s (TWC) US$285million Asian Film Fund, TWC unveiled plans to finance the development, production, acquisition, marketing and distribution of new Asian-themed films including action epic Shanghai, and a contemporary remake of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.

Starring Asian martial arts artistes Jackie Chan and Jet Li, The Forbidden Kingdom opens in Asia including Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong in the month of April, and will debut in the US on April 18 in over 3000 theaters. The film will be co-released by TWC and Lionsgate in the UK, Spain, France and Latin America.

To be directed by Mikael Håfström, Shanghai will feature a story set in 1941 China and star John Cusack, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe. Shooting will commence May 5, 2008 in London and is expected to move to Thailand and China. The film is slated for release in North America on Christmas day in 2008.

TWC is in final negotiations to confirm the director for Seven Samurai, and has engaged in preliminary talks with the potential cast which will include American, European, and Asian stars. The shoot is being planned for Q4, 2008 with the film to be released in 2009.

Launched in August 2007, TWC’s Asian Film Fund aims to provide international filmmakers with ‘a global voice’. More Asian-themed films are expected to be added to TWC’s three-film slate.

Add A Comment

  Post A Comment

There are no comments for the article yet.

Rate This Article

Excellent
Very Good
Good
Quite Good
Poor

  Rate This Article

Related Stories

Singapore Film Commission hands out grants to nine filmmakers - 6/10/2008

The Singapore Film Commission's (SFC) selected nine filmmakers to received cash awards under its New Feature Film Fund. The filmmakers received S$250,000 each to direct their feature films. In additio [...]

HK, Singapore to host film financing conference - 2/9/2008

Singapore/Hong Kong - The Asia Business Forum will be organising a one-day conference on film financing in Singapore on 11 November 2008 and Hong Kong on 13 November 2008. Film finance is a litt [...]

BDA Singapore produces Beijing Olympics official opening sequence - 22/7/2008

Singapore - Bruce Dunlop & Associates (BDA) Singapore created the 30-second opening clip for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games which will be telecast worldwide during the games coverage. BDA Singapo [...]