Sunday August 21, 2005
Chow’s Kung Fu casting
Compiled by THAM AI MEI
NO thanks to a falling-out with his one-time protégé Huang Sheng Yi, Hong Kong’s maverick filmmaker Stephen Chow has moved to look for a replacement leading lady in his upcoming sequel to Kung Fu Hustle. (The Chinese actress was the beautiful mute in the 2004 action-comedy hit.)
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Friendlier times: Stephen Chow with Huang Sheng Yi last December. |
The aspiring starlets were required to sign confidentiality agreements which barred them from disclosing details about the auditions.
According to the report, the hopefuls, mostly in their 20s and early 30s, were leggy beauties who worked really hard to get the attention of the discerning director.
However, only two of them managed to clinch a “private interview” with the influential director-actor. They were model-actress Wang Zi Wen and young actress Wang Ya Jie.
Both ladies were said to have been separately ushered into a room with Chow from which bouts of laughter soon rang out.
Honey, I didn’t shun the press
NEWLYWEDS Faye Wong and Li Yapeng returned to China recently after an eight-day honeymoon in Thailand, all glowing and loving, according to a report in Sin Chew Daily.
The Hong Kong paparazzi who staked out Shanghai’s Pudong Airport were promptly rewarded when the couple emerged from their morning flight, sporting matching gold bands on their fingers.
The article said that Mr and Mrs Li started out their holidays in the company of six friends. Their pals soon left to allow the newly married pair to enjoy some privacy.
During their honeymoon, Li, 34, was apparently the perfect, doting husband who carefully checked around to ensure there were no intruding paparazzi.
And marriage has clearly worked its magic on the usually ice-cool Wong as the 36-year-old singer-actress offered a rare smile to a reporter who tailed her at the Shanghai airport. When congratulated upon her marriage, the bride coyly uttered “thank you”.
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Anthony Wong: First American production. |
FOLLOWING in the footsteps of Asian stars Gong Li, Datuk Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat and Jackie Chan, Hong Kong’s most celebrated character actor, Anthony Wong, is set to star in his debut Hollywood feature entitled The Painted Veil.
Singapore’s The Straits Times, quoting the International Herald Tribune, says that Wong, 44, will play a key character in the story as a Chinese soldier.
The period drama starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts is based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name and will be shot in China.
In his typically direct manner, Wong described how the American deal came about. “They came to me. I read the script, and it’s very easy. I asked: ‘Why me?’”
When he was told that they needed “a great actor”, the actor replied: “Okay, lah.”
In an interview with the IHT, he says he has been in some 280 movies and that the bulk of the work, except for about 50 titles, is “crap”.
He says he took on these movies to pay rent and support his wife, two sons and his mother, who raised him after his British father abandoned them when he was four.
“I’m a survivor. I did a lot of crap movies. It’s like I battled in the jungle and still I survived.”
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Daniel Wu: Not drunk, but tired. |
DANIEL Wu literally worked till he dropped recently, the entertainment website Yahoo! Hong Kong reported.
Unable to cope with an exceptionally hectic schedule to plug his latest film Drink Drank Drunk, the Hong Kong-based Chinese American actor eventually collapsed from sheer exhaustion after one of the functions.
Just a few days before, Wu, 31, had gone for a check-up at the hospital. Nonetheless, the hardworking thespian insisted on carrying out his promotional duties.
At the said event, Wu was at first seen in high spirits, whispering occasionally to co-star Miriam Yeung. However, once the star headed out to the car park to leave the scene, he started throwing up, much to everyone’s shock.
Though his manager has duly cancelled most of his promotional activities, it did not stop one of the movie’s producers from praising Wu’s determination and professionalism.
Eric Fong, another of Wu’s co-star in the movie, said: “I had no idea he was ill!”
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