Since Hollywood is sleeping this weekend, the spy will entertain you today with the first trailer (coming straight from Toronto International Film Festival) and posters for the latest epic spectacle directed by famous Zhang Yimou, the helmer of House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, and Hero and international productions such are The Great Wall and The Flowers of War. His new historical adventure SHADOW arrives to Chinese Cinemas September 30th and will get North American release sometime next year. You can check out the unusual visual aspect of his new movie in the trailer below!
THE STORY OF SHADOW
is set in Pei, a kingdom ruled by a
young and unpredictable king, where the military commander faces peril
both inside and outside the palace walls. But he has a secret weapon: a
‘shadow’, a look-alike who can fool both Pei’s
Black and white style follows the style of Chinese ink wash paintings.
enemies and the King
himself. In his obsessive quest for a long-sought victory over a rival
kingdom, the commander must execute an intricate plan involving his
wife, the Shadow, and the kings of both kingdoms, leading up to a major
invasion.
WHO IS IN THE CAST?
Asian stars Chao Deng, Li Sun, Ryan Zheng, Qianuyan Wang and Jingchun Wang, are just some of the actors who will portray the vast gallery
The movie has premiered at Venice and Toronto Film Festivals
of characters which includes: the king, violent and ambitious, of mysterious methods and motives; his general, a visionary who yearns to win the final
Surprisingly for an Asian movie, this one is a bit shorter than two hours
battle but needs to prepare his plans in secret; the women of the palace, who struggle to find redemption in a world where they have no place; and a commoner called "Lord of all the world"!
A most delicious treat for you this Sunday, my spylings, coming from one of Asia's biggest film makers, visual genius Zhang Yimou who gave the world such legendary cinematic miracles as Hero, House of the Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower: his latest fantasy adventure THE GREAT WALL, the biggest movie (by the size of the production and budget) made so far in China (and also his first English language movie), the land of magnificent epic spectacles! Today you will not just feast your eyes on twelve character posters from the movie, but you can also enjoy the latest international trailer for it which lasts, believe it or not, totally epic 9 minutes! Check it out below our premium spotlight.
A $135 MILLION MOVIE Scheduled to warm up the cold winter in cinemas this December in
China, most of Asia, most of Europe during January, and then in
February in Russia, United Kingdom and United States of America, this
fantasy action movie, which allegedly took about $135 million to be made
is centred on a mystery around the construction of the legendary
Great Wall of China.
1700 YEARS TO BUILD, 5500 MILES LONG! WHAT WERE THEY TRYING TO KEEP OUT?
Set about a 1,000 years into the past the movie stars Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal and Willem Dafoe as a trio of mercenaries from the West who have come to steal gunpowder from the Chinese and maybe a rumoured legendary weapon that they want to use to conquer their homeland. But when they arrive at THE GREAT WALL they find something they weren’t expecting: As wave after wave of marauding beasts besiege the massive structure, their quest for fortune turns into a journey toward heroism as they join a huge army of elite warriors to confront this unimaginable and seemingly unstoppable force. The monsters are identified as the Taotie, beasts of great greed from ancient Chinese mythology. A horde of monsters creep up on the wall every 60 years forcing the army to defend it! And that is how humanity’s greatest fight for survival starts under the rocks of THE GREAT WALL of China!
ASIAN STARS IN THE CAST There was a big backlash around the casting of Damon in this movie,
which was originally supposed to have a much much better choice of Henry
Cavill and Benjamin Walker in the lead roles, but as you can see in the
trailer he obviously and thankfully does not take a lot of time on the big screen in
it. The cast also includes a plethora of big Asian stars lead by Andy
Lau, Tian Jing, Lu Han, Junkai Wang, and they all play leaders of
different armies, equipped with different majestic armours and weapons,
who are stationed below THE GREAT WALL trying to defend it from the
sneaky green monsters that are attacking them. Including a Blue, all female flying army of lancers! Since the movie had an
international crew, more than 100 on-set translators worked with the
various cast and crew members. Ramin Djawadi, who worked on Game of
Thrones, Warcraft, Pacific Rim, is composing the music!
Not much to report today, just some new posters for the movies we're waiting to see in the cinemas, starting with a new one for epic historical fantasy adventure THE GREAT WALL which starts rolling around the world from December till February next year.
Starring Andy Lau, Willem Dafoe, Pedro Pascal and greatly miscast Matt Damon and
directed by legendary visual genius Yimou Zhang (as his first English
movie), it follows an elite mediaeval force which, in the battle for
humanity, makes a heroic stand atop the Great Wall of China to combat an
army of monsters.
NEW 'DENIAL' POSTER
RACHEL WEISZ & TIMOTHY SPALL
A new poster has also been released for another period set movie, Rachel Weisz starring DENIAL based on the acclaimed book "History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier"! It recounts Deborah E. Lipstadt's (Rachel Weisz) legal battle for historical truth against David Irving (Timothy Spall), who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier. In the English legal system, the burden of proof is on the accused, therefore it was up to Lipstadt and her legal team to prove the essential truth that the Holocaust occurred. Tom Wilkinson also stars with Jack Lowden and Andrew Scott in the movie which is out in USA and will open in UK in January.
A selection of TV news today, starting with Gregg Sulkin and his colleague from their Disney days David Henrie who have prepared DOWNTOWN EARL show in which Greg is Duke Ashley Earl Winthrop who, after royally embarrassing the crown one last time, is shipped away. He’ll be stripped of the crown and forced to learn humility the American way by living with a working class family in downtown LA with his chaperone, and polar opposite, MI6 agent Balt (Henrie), who is forced to document the journey via vid-log.
In the trailer department, you can check out the second trailer for epic adventure THE GREAT WALL which is out in China this December and in USA next February directed by legendary Zhang Yimou! A mix of epic adventure, history and fantasy, the movie follows an epic battle for humanity in which an elite force makes a heroic stand atop the Great Wall of China. Andy Lau, Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal lead the international cast. Although the movie looks visually breathtaking the casting of Matt Damon in it looks like a very sad joke indeed.
As Amazon has just picked their small screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE LAST TYCOON into whole TV series, we have gorgeous first photos from it too! The cast is lead by Matt Bomer, Lily Collins and Kelsey Grammer.
Inspired by the life of film mogul Irving Thalberg, on whom the
book’s protagonist Monroe Stahr was based THE LAST TYCOON centres on
Stahr (Matt Bomer), Hollywood’s first wunderkind studio executive
in the 1930s as he climbs to the height of power pitting him against
his mentor and current head of the studio, the brawny, imposing,
charming and vain Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer), a character based
on Louis B. Mayer. Having come from the streets, Brady has no intention
of returning to his misfortune, and is determined to make sure his
studio is successful, no matter what personal morals he compromises.
'THE GREAT WALL' TRAILER
ZHANG YIMOU'S EPIC MOVIE
Universal's has meanwhile released the first, rather epic, trailer for Zhang Yimou's THE GREAT WALL which sadly, instead of originally planned Henry Cavill has Matt Damon in the lead role looking terribly lost in it. The largest film ever shot in China should hit cinemas next February following an elite force making a last stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure.
It is an exquisitely boring start of the week, people, so, as usual in such cases, the spy is going Asian! First up, a very touching movie coming from China! COMING HOME from famous Yimou Zhangwill open in USA this September and has already played around the world.
LOVE NEVER FOR- GETS Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming) and Feng Wanyu (Gong Li) are a
devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a
labor camp as a political prisoner, just as his wife is injured in an
accident. Released during the last days of the Cultural Revolution, he
finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife has amnesia and
remembers little of her past. Unable to recognize Lu, she patiently
waits for her husband's return. A stranger alone in the heart of his
broken family, Lu Yanshi determines to resurrect their past together and
reawaken his wife's memory.
'THE ASSASSIN' POSTER & CLIP
FROM CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Another one coming from China is epic action drama which opened at Cannes Film Festival this year: THE ASSASSIN has the story set during the mighty Tang Dynasty period in Chinese history. Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi) returns to family after several years in exile. The mission of her order is to eliminate the tyrany of the Governors who avoid the authority of the Emperor. Now she will have to choose between sacrificing the man she loves (Chang Chen), or break definitively with the "order of the Assassins". The movie has a USA distributor as well!
