You are viewing the archive: “China Film Group”

Cannes: Keanu Reeves Presents Directorial Debut & China Co-Production ‘Man Of Tai Chi’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 7:46am PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, China Film Group, Keanu Reeves, Man Of Tai Chi

A representative of China Film Group today called Keanu Reeves’ upcoming Man Of Tai Chi “the most important co-production” for the company this year. Reeves makes his directorial debut with the kung-fu film that is a co-production from CFG, Wanda Media, Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Universal Pictures. At a gathering to introduce clips from the film, Reeves said he shot for more than 105 days in Beijing and Hong Kong, where the crew was at one point locked on a set because of a severe typhoon. He chose this movie to make his helming debut because it was “the story I felt I could tell and wanted to tell and didn’t want anybody else to tell.”

Man Of Tai Chi focuses on a young, innocent martial artist who struggles to maintain his values amid the pressures of contemporary society. Tiger Chen plays the man who is lured into the underground boxing world where Reeves plays the man out to manipulate him. Reeves and Chen worked together on the Matrix movies where Chen taught Reeves about “wires and kicks and punches.” The pair became friends and over five years developed the story. Reeves says it was just about “four or five years ago that I started to think about directing. But I always said I would only direct if I had a story to tell.”

Giving himself an extra challenge, the story is told in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Reeves says, “I had to listen. The process was very collaborative. I had great support in terms of translators, casting or working on a scene… As an actor, you’re part of telling a story and as a director you’re responsible for it, but you can’t do it yourself so the collaboration was the gift.” READ MORE »

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Cannes: Latest Theft Affects China Film Group VP

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Sunday May 19, 2013 @ 1:52pm PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, China Film Group, Keanu Reeves

The latest tale of thievery to surface here in Cannes after last week’s $1M jewelry heist, involves China Film Group vice-president Zhang Qiang whose luggage was reportedly stolen from his hotel room. … Read More »

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U.S. Movie Influx Has “Shaken” Chinese Industry, Official Says

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Sunday November 11, 2012 @ 10:43am PSTTags: Big Deals Film, China, China Film Group

Back in February, the U.S. and China agreed to significantly increase the number of imported films allowed to be shown in Chinese movie theaters. The move has “shaken” the local industry, radio-film-TV vice minister Tian Jin said today in Beijing. “This has brought handsome profits to the American film industry, but has also posed pressure and challenge to the Chinese film industry,” he commented at a press conference on the sidelines of the Communist Party’s 18th congress, AFP reports. “Domestic films are facing great pressure,” said Tian, who vice minister of China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. “The objective reason is that more foreign films in the Chinese market have dealt a blow to domestic films, and the subjective reason is that the domestic film industry needs to be more competitive,” he said. Box office is up 40% on last year, Tian noted, at $2.1B as of the end of October. However, the local share of that pie was only 40%. Read More »

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Film Exec: Hollywood-China Gatekeeper

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Sunday April 29, 2012 @ 3:54pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, China Film Group

MONDAY AM UPDATE: The SEC probe into Hollywood’s China business practices was sparked by a whistle-blower, The New York Times reports today. Citing a person with knowledge of the investigation, the paper says the Hollywood companies … Read More »

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James V. Hart Scripts Rob Minkoff’s ‘Chinese Odyssey’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday September 1, 2010 @ 10:40am PDTTags: China Film Group, Flying Tigers, Rob Minkoff
Mike Fleming

Screenwriter James V. Hart has signed on to write Chinese Odyssey, a 3D action adventure fantasy that will be directed by The Lion King‘s Rob Minkoff. The plan is to shoot the film in China by next spring in what would be the first major feature film developed with Chinese … Read More »

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John Woo Makes IMAX Debut With ‘Flying Tigers’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday August 30, 2010 @ 8:38am PDTTags: China Film Group, Flying Tigers, IMAX, John Woo, John Woo Flying Tigers, Terence Chang
Mike Fleming

IMAX Corporation announced that John Woo and his producing partner Terence Chang will have their next film, Flying Tigers, digitally remastered for The IMAX Experience. The film–a Hollywood-China joint production with China Film Group as lead Chinese financier–tells the story … Read More »

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