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[2010.07.31] SHU QI LONGS FOR TONGUE WAR WITH AARON KWOK

6:31 PM | Labels: , , ,

courtesy of on.cc

Aaron Kwok Fu Sing and Shu Qi reunite ten years later. Shu Qi sighed that the film did not have any intimate scene. Being single, she joked that she enjoyed the feeling of dating different people in movies. However, Sing Sing in the film suffered all kinds of abuse. He was even hospitalized for a bloody injury.

Sing Sing and Shu Qi ten years ago worked together on STORM RAIDERS (FUNG WON HUNG BA TIN HA). Ten years later they reunited for Benny Chan Muk Sing's new film CITY UNDER SIEGE (CHUEN SING GAI BEI). In the film their intimate scene ended with a peck. They did not have any kiss scene, which Shu Qi jokingly said was regrettable!

Currently single, Shu Qi joked that she enjoyed the feeling of romancing different actors in different films. "I am pretty unfaithful, today I can date Sing Sing, in another film I can be with Ge You while I look forward to someone else in the next one. Right after cut I can immediately break up. Dating like this is pretty decent." As for Sing Sing ten years ago, Shu Qi pointed out that back then he already was a very famous singer. However he was not arrogant and took great care of new comers. "Working together again this time, his passion for film hasn't changed at all. He never says no no matter how dangerous the scene is."

Shu Qi's character in the film is unkind, selfish and sells out friends. She joked that it is very easy to grasp. Because she did not need to battle wits, she could directly play it. "The character's personality makes me very mad at myself, I feel I am very horrible!" Reportedly the character was a reflection of Patty Hou (Hau Pui Shum), Shu Qi said, "The news is very absurd, very pointless."

Sing Sing joked that ten years later Shu Qi used less "foul language". "Previously her Cantonese was not so fluent, so she always made words sound dirty. However she is very attentive. In one scene we were crammed inside a car. Because of the fat suit I couldn't get tissues to wipe the sweat away, she attentively brought me some. I even got to touch her hand!" As for the most memorable scene, Sing Sing pointed out that the mutant fat look irritate his skin and required hospitalized. Then a truck ran into him, the glass cut his hand and left a scar that is still here now.

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[2010.07.31] NG YU: RAYMOND LAM, LEO KU TO EACH HIS OWN

6:00 PM | Labels: , , , , , ,

Ng Yu, Sire Ma Choi, Coffee Lam Yuen Ha, Lam Chiu Wing, Chun Siu Chun

courtesy of takungpao.com

Mona Fong Yat Wa single handedly put together TVB, Emperor and Shaw's first film collaboration THE JADE AND THE PEARL (FEI CHUI MING JU). Emperor executive Ng Yu expressed that Ms. Fong this time let go completely for them to do their part. The only objection was the theme song, which she asked to be recorded again. Elaine Lok Yi Ling was very satisfied after watching the kiss scene between Joey Yung Cho Yi and Raymond Lam Fung and joked that she wanted to replace Joey to kiss Lam Fung. Lam Fung and Charlene Choi Cheuk Yin originally has a peck but after watching he asked for another take in order please the audience.

Ng Yu said, earlier he wanted to remake THE KINGDOM AND THE BEAUTY (GONG SAN MEI YUNG) but Kelly Chen Wai Lam has already made it. Ah Sa also felt that she was no match for Linda Lam Doi and instead was very interested in ROMANCE OF THE PHOENIX CHAMBER (FUNG GOK YAU SAU MEI LIU CHING). Finally they thought that "jade and pearl" could be used as tokens of love. In the film originally in one scene the jade and the pearl were scattered in the air, Ng Yu thought it was unlucky and turned the idea down. He was very confident in this film and expected the box office to be over 10 million. Lam Fung's fans have already booked a cinema. Director Chun Siu Chun also complimented Ah Sa's acting as decent. Although the shoot took place when Ah Sa was at her lowest romantically, she still was able to perform the young girl emotions. One of the producers Chin Siu Wai suggested a nomination for her for the Golden Horse and the Hong Kong Film Awards.

In addition, Ng Yu yesterday also appeared on a radio interview. Emperor's support of Lam Fung reportedly upset top star Leo Ku Kui Ke. Ng Yu said that he would be upset at such rumors too. He said that they all did their own thing. Gei Jai was mainly focused on music and records, which Emperor definitely would put a lot of effort into. Lam Fung had TVB as his support. Why did he not ask Gei Jai to perform THE JADE AND THE PEARL theme song? Ng Yu said that he was not in the film, if he sang it it would feel strange.

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[2010.07.31] WANG LEEHOM DIRECTS TO ENRICH HIS LIFE

5:51 PM | Labels: , , ,

courtesy of takungpao.com


Wang Leehom (Wong Lik Won)'s first film as a writer, director and star, LOVE IN DISGUISE (LUEN OI TUNG GO) will be released on August 13, but its pictorial collection is already available to warm up the market. Today Director Wang even took time for a film pictorial collection autograph session in Taipei and shared the growth and creative experience of his debut as a director.

The book is divided into Superstar Chapter, Disguise Chapter, Romance Chapter, School Life Chapter, and Music Chapter, and also collects many exciting stills from the film and the record of his growth as a first time director. Leehom stated that he did not just decide to make a movie out of the blue. He passionately loved creating and enjoyed that type of something out of nothing process, whether with records, writing, acting or directing. These creative processes enriched his life and made his life more meaningful. He also shared his director experience. "A director is like being at the helm, the entire team works toward the direction that you would like to go. In addition, you have to be responsible for all the workers' everyday life. Perhaps due to a lack of personnel, sometimes I have to do a variety of chores like sweeping and moving props myself."

In this inspirational comedy, Leehom even stars in the lead opposite Liu Yifei and Joan Chen. The story not only mixed in music, love, traditional art and culture with other elements but also attempted to deliver a courage of self breakthrough, self hard work and true heart to the audience.

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[2010.07.31] VENICE PUTS JOHN WOO DAY ON PRIME TIME

5:16 PM | Labels: ,

courtesy of singtao.com


courtesy of takungpao.com

John Woo (Ng Yu Sum)'s new film REIGN OF ASSASSINS (GIM YU) will be released at the end of September in the Mainland and early October in Hong Kong. As the 67th Annual Venice Film Festival announced "John Woo Day" for its Lifetime Achievement Award winner, director Ng Yu Sum, the film will hold its global premiere on September 3. The cast including Michelle Yeoh (Yeung Chi King), Jung Woo-Sung, Barbie Hsu (Tsui Hei Woon), Shawn Yue Man Lok will appear in Venice with Ng Yu Sum.

The film festival director Marco Muller created special screening of REIGN OF ASSASSINS for John Woo Day. Since the announcement of "Lifetime Achievement" last December, the committee has been planning a Ng Yu Sum film theme and organizing series film screening. REIGN OF ASSASSIN will be Ng Yu Sum's first major wuxia film and has been invited to hold its global premiere there very early on as a salute to Ng's film achievement. The original time was set for two days after the award on September 4, but due to Marco Muller it received special treatment. Ng Yu Sum said, "Earlier Marco Muller came to China and saw some rough cut of REIGN OF ASSASSIN. He expressed that he liked this film very much and felt that the story was great. He decided to change the film screening to Friday, September 3, which traditionally has been the film festival prime time. The evening screening can be considered the prime time slot's prime time." September 3 has become "John Woo Day", with THE KILLER (DIP HUET SEUNG HUNG) screening in the afternoon and REIGN OF ASSASSIN at night. Then the award will be presented to Ng Yu Sum.

Ng Yu Sum innovated the action film nucleus to make visual art even more procedural and become the example of Asia and Hollywood action film. This is the reason that the Venice Film Festival committee announced Ng Yu Sum to be its Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ng Yu Sum stated that his innovative footsteps have not stopped because of the award, as REIGN OF ASSASSINS will be the peak of his film career.

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[2010.07.31] BARBIE HSU APOLOGIZES TO HUANG XIAOMING

5:13 PM | Labels: , , , ,

Barbie Hsu (Tsui Hei Woon), Richie Jen (Yam Yin Chai) and Huo Siyan

courtesy of takungpao.com

The film ADVENTURE OF THE KING (LUNG FUNG DIM) held its official site launch and its final poster unveiling ceremony. Director Chung Shu Kai along with actors Richie Jen (Yam Yin Chai), Barbie Hsu (Tsui Hei Woon), Huo Siyan attended. The film theme song creator Siu Chung also made an appearance. THe event showed the Yam Yin Chai and Big S film theme song music video HEART LIVER BABY (SUM GONG BO BUI), Big S who has not released a record in a long time pointed out that she thanked Yam Yin Chai the most for his encouragement for this performance.

Big S had nothing but praise for Siu Chai. She praised Siu Chai as very nice and very attentive. People often asked why Big S was not married and what kind of person she liked, she joked that because the person who she would like to marry is already married and that person was Siu Chai. Big S also was a popular star on the micro blog, which she rather enjoyed as a means to share her life with fans. Big S pointed out that she had a ruler in her heart and would write things that her audience would like. Anything too sad or too serious that would upset the audience she would not write.

Big S earlier told Angelababy could get her number from Huang Xiaoming when she wen to Taiwan, seemingly exposing their relationship. When asked whether she had Huang Xiaoming's permission before posting the message, she expressed that she indeed was sorry about this and later explained to them. Both were very forgiving.

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Film Fan Fridays for Friday July 30, 2010

6:07 AM | Labels: ,

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday July 30, 2010! This may truly be the first week of the year where I'm not wanting to race out the door to see a particular film! Well, it took us more than half of the year to get to that... but that's where I'm at this week! Although I'm not super hyped for the releases this week there is still lots of news kicking around and I'm thrilled to share my news of the debut of the Movie Moxie Podcast! A 100% spoiler free film podcast! Episode 1 is up here and I talk about Salt, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and The Kids Are All Right. You can subscribe to the podcast through RSS feed here and through iTunes here. Have a listen & I really hope you enjoy it!

In limited release this week we have just one release and that is Countdown to Zero, a documentary on the nuclear arms race from award winning director Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Blindsight).

In wide release this week we have four releases including the latest 3D film, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and it's the feature film directorial debut from Brad Peyton, who directed the fantastically morbid short Evelyn: The Cutest Evil Dead Girl. We also have the drama Charlie St. Cloud starring Zac Efron and from 17 Again director Burr Steers. The comedy entry of the week is Dinner for Schmucks, a remake of the 1998 French film The Dinner Game, with a premise similar to Dogfight, but in this case it's who can bring the craziest loser to the dinner party. Last entry of the week is the Bollywood film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, which is 70's set retro chic and has taglines like "In the Age of Chocolate Boys - Rewind to the Era of Real Men", which cracked me up and might just bump it up to the most interesting release of the week.

Although I'm not over the moon about the film releases this week we are warming up to festival fever here in Toronto with announcements of the Toronto After Dark 2010 Line Up and the first big list of titles for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Have a great weekend!

Shannon

Festival Watch

Caribbean Tales Film Festival
July 30 - August 2, 2010, at Harbourfront in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Friday July 30, 2010 Releases

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Dir: Brad Peyton - feature film directorial debut
Voices: Chris O’Donnell, Paul Rodriguez, Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Leslie Mann, Ray Liotta, Katt Williams
USA/Australia
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Charlie St. Cloud
Dir: Burr Steers (17 Again, Igby Goes Down)
Cast: Zac Efron, Amanda Crew, Donal Logue, Charlie Tahan, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta
USA/Canada
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Countdown to Zero
Dir: Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Blindsight)
Documentary
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Dinner for Schmucks
Dir: Jay Roach (Meet the Fockers, Meet the Parents, Mystery, Alaska)
Cast: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Stephanie Szostak, Bruce Greenwood
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
Dir: Milan Luthria (Hattrick, Chori Chori)
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut
India
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of July 30, 2010**

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Film Fan Fridays for Friday July 30, 2010

6:07 AM | Labels: ,

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday July 30, 2010! This may truly be the first week of the year where I'm not wanting to race out the door to see a particular film! Well, it took us more than half of the year to get to that... but that's where I'm at this week! Although I'm not super hyped for the releases this week there is still lots of news kicking around and I'm thrilled to share my news of the debut of the Movie Moxie Podcast! A 100% spoiler free film podcast! Episode 1 is up here and I talk about Salt, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and The Kids Are All Right. You can subscribe to the podcast through RSS feed here and through iTunes here. Have a listen & I really hope you enjoy it!

In limited release this week we have just one release and that is Countdown to Zero, a documentary on the nuclear arms race from award winning director Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Blindsight).

In wide release this week we have four releases including the latest 3D film, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and it's the feature film directorial debut from Brad Peyton, who directed the fantastically morbid short Evelyn: The Cutest Evil Dead Girl. We also have the drama Charlie St. Cloud starring Zac Efron and from 17 Again director Burr Steers. The comedy entry of the week is Dinner for Schmucks, a remake of the 1998 French film The Dinner Game, with a premise similar to Dogfight, but in this case it's who can bring the craziest loser to the dinner party. Last entry of the week is the Bollywood film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, which is 70's set retro chic and has taglines like "In the Age of Chocolate Boys - Rewind to the Era of Real Men", which cracked me up and might just bump it up to the most interesting release of the week.

Although I'm not over the moon about the film releases this week we are warming up to festival fever here in Toronto with announcements of the Toronto After Dark 2010 Line Up and the first big list of titles for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Have a great weekend!

Shannon

Festival Watch

Caribbean Tales Film Festival
July 30 - August 2, 2010, at Harbourfront in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Friday July 30, 2010 Releases

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Dir: Brad Peyton - feature film directorial debut
Voices: Chris O’Donnell, Paul Rodriguez, Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Leslie Mann, Ray Liotta, Katt Williams
USA/Australia
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Charlie St. Cloud
Dir: Burr Steers (17 Again, Igby Goes Down)
Cast: Zac Efron, Amanda Crew, Donal Logue, Charlie Tahan, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta
USA/Canada
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Countdown to Zero
Dir: Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Blindsight)
Documentary
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Dinner for Schmucks
Dir: Jay Roach (Meet the Fockers, Meet the Parents, Mystery, Alaska)
Cast: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Stephanie Szostak, Bruce Greenwood
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
Dir: Milan Luthria (Hattrick, Chori Chori)
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut
India
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of July 30, 2010**

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[2010.07.30] TSUI HARK CREATES NEW HERO FOR ANDY LAU

7:51 PM | Labels: , ,

courtesy of singtao.com


courtesy of takungpao.com

The Andy Lau Tak Wa, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau Ka Ling, Deng Chao, Tony Leung Ka Fai starred DETECTIVE DEE (DIK YUN KIT ji TUNG TIN DAI GOK) will be released on September 30 in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia simultaneously. Later it will hold its global premiere at a certain large scale European film festival. The team's travel budget and production budget reached tens of millions.

In addition, the film's trailer has officially been released. In the two minute and 20 second longer video, not only the mystery but also the Great Tang recreation that cost 100 million RMB were unveiled. In other words, each second of the trailer cost HK$800,000. Lau Tak Wa in the trailer was visible at every turn, from the close distance inspection of a burnt corpse to the kitchen fire deduction to a duel with a mysterious opponent. In the final scene he even jumped from high up, revealing Tsui Hark's ambition of creating a new Chinese film hero for Lau Tak Wa.

The film yesterday received the good news that it became the only Chinese film to be in competition at this year's Venice Film Festival. Lead actor Lau Tak Wa was very happy for two reasons. He was happy for director Tsui Hark because this film was very able to represent Tsui
Hark's style, so he was happy about the recognition; he was also happy that this would be his first film to participate in the Venice Film Festival. It would be an action film as well, thus he hoped that the audience would like the film.

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[2010.07.30] ZHANG JINGCHU GIVES HER ALL FOR FIGHT SCENES

7:49 PM | Labels: , , , ,

courtesy of mingpao.com


courtesy of takungpao.com

Zhang Jingchu's film CITY UNDER SIEGE (CHUEN SING GAI BEI) will be released on August 12 in Hong Kong. Zhang Jingchu's character in the film knew Chinese kung fu and was Wu Jing's partner. Together they were chasing mutants. This time as an action actress, Zhang Jingchu pointed out that the biggest challenge was the action scenes. Each time director Benny Chan Muk Sing and martial art director designed new action scenes, she would be very nervous as she was afraid that she would not be able to adjust in a short time. Later she thought she might as well give her all. Now looking back at the scenes, she too was curious why at the time she fought so well.

Zhang Jingchu was in a lot of pain during the fight scenes, in particular her heel. However she rather enjoyed wire work as she was able to fly up and down, which she thought was a lot of fun. She also pointed out that she was very relaxed in action scenes with Wu Jing because with any accident he would be the first to cover her and keep her from harm. If she had any difficult action, he would teach her short cuts. Zhang Jingchu also discovered that Director Chan was a sentimental person. In one scene when the director read a line with her, his eyes suddenly turned red. Everyone was stunned. During voice work when she relived that scene, she too felt sad. She believed that the audience would scene it too.

Chan Muk Sing expressed that Zhang Jingchu's character was his favorite. He pointed out that Jingchu asked a lot from herself. In the film everyone lost themselves in the pursuit of fame or fortune, only Zhang Jingchu's character was able to live soberly. Thus this was his favorite character. Wu Jing felt that this film was a rare experience because he ran into strong people in both drama and action, like Zhang Jingchu and Collin Chou Siu Lung.

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[2010.07.30] DEEP NG CAMPAIGNS FOR FUTURE SISTER IN LAW

7:47 PM | Labels: , ,

Sherman Chung Shu Man, Deep Ng Ho Hong

courtesy of takungpao.com

Sherman Chung Shu Man and Deep Ng Ho Hong yesterday appeared on an online radio interview to promote STOOL PIGEON (SIN YUN). In the film Deep played an armed robber and joked that gun scenes in the city felt great. Speaking of the upcoming Miss Hong Kong pageant, would he support his girlfriend's sister Chong Si Ming? He said that day he would have to work on a young idol series in Beijing but would support her in spirit. Chong Si Ming earlier was cited as an also ran candidate, Deep said, "Participation is the key. Anyone has a chance to be also ran, I told her when she hears comments like that, instead she has to do even better to prove that she isn't also ran. Lately she feels much more mature. Actually whether or not she is an also ran doesn't matter, the process is the most important." Deep as "future brother in law" would do his part and ask his friends to vote.

Sherman released her fifth album. As for the theme, she said, "Everyone's life has a mission, my duty is following music for a lifetime." Sherman personally wrote 4 songs, Deep also wrote one for her. Sherman said, "Deep's song PUZZLE (PING TOH) sounds great, but it wasn't plugged. However many message broads praised it, proving that Deep is a very valuable musician. On stage he is a star, I haven't seen him perform on stage for a long time." Deep joked that he always treated Sherman like a toy and often had fun at her expense. Sherman said, "One is willing to abuse the other is willing to take the abuse, he always treats me like a guy like a brother, he also always makes fun of me and says that boys like me shouldn't grow my hair long."

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[2010.07.30] DONNIE YEN IS STUCK FOR HALF A DAY

7:42 PM | Labels: ,

courtesy of on.cc


courtesy of singtao.com

courtesy of mingpao.com

courtesy of takungpao.com

Donnie Yen Chi Tan after a vacation in Canada earlier flew to Beijing in preparation for the October production of the 3D live action epic THE MONKEY KING and sat for the Monkey King costume fitting. That day happened to be his birthday. Although this year his family could not celebrate with him, it was just as memorable as all day a group of men felt him up from morning to night to put him in a full body cast. He spent hot and wet birthday.

This time Chi Tan's Monkey King make up already cost over US$1 million. Chi tan modeled for the image that day. In 12 hours he went through facial expression scanning, full body casting mold, image study and other complex processes. Even his teeth had to be measured for the special effect make up. Chi Tan expressed that the most painful part was having to stand for 30 minutes. He wore tight clothing inside while a cast was applied outside and made him immobile. He said, "The cast itself was already heavy and contained water, while waiting for it to dry I couldn't pick it all. I was hot and sweating all over, it's like carrying another person. It was very heavy and hurt my ankles." In order for Chi Tan to relax, everyone kept talking to him and jokingly asked him to tolerate it a little more because it was his birthday full body beauty treatment.

In order to play the Monkey King, Chi Tan made personal suggestions to producer Agan and even brought a comic book about the Monkey King for him. Chi Tan felt that the Monkey King should have a variety of expressions. When he was angry his hair should also change.

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Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010: Schedule & Line Up Announced!

1:15 PM | Labels: ,




Toronto After Dark is one of the big highlights of the festival year here in Toronto, where all the cult, genre, zombie and horror fans come out of the woodwork and are treated to a cinematic buffet of epic proportions. It has grown over the years and always has an exciting line up films along with fantastically enthusiastic audiences filled with great people. With the festival just over 2 weeks away, we finally have the film line up and schedule in our hot little hands... or rather viewed from our wide eyed... eyes.

I'm over the moon excited to see Centurion listed in the line up. It's directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent), a Roman epic, ensemble cast including Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Fish Tank), few-against-many-ness and a woman kicking butt. This is a yes, yes, yes! Actually Centurion was on my wishful thinking 2010 Most Anticipated Releases list, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't make it to regular theatres, and it still might - but I know that I'll be seeing it here! Continuing the epicness, we also Black Death starring Sean Bean in medieval/horror flick which a dash of witchcraft, but more of the witch hunting variety. Switching gears to the outer layer, one film that looks freaking fantastic is from Switzerland and set out even further than that: Cargo is set during a long term space flight hauling cargo with a medic attending the flight and I'm sure it must 'all go wrong' at some point, but it looks freaking beautiful and has a female protagonist - yay!

Getting a little scarier we keep trekking across the globe to Thailand for Phobia 2, a sequel from the directors 4bia / Phobia / See Prang, and I'm all for crazy scary Thai horror omnibuses! Bring 'em on! I've also heard fantastic things about the French film Rubber, which is literally about Robert, the sentient, killer tire. It looks hilarious from the trailer. Keeping it dark, we also have Heartless, which although I'm not a big 'darkness within' fan, I am a big fan of Jim Sturgess and this one looks like it's got a very interesting premise and very polished look although the trailer a little spoilery.

If you'd rather giggle your way through some films there certainly is a fair amount of comedy to choose from, whether it be in the form of a gorefest with Robogeisha, or ode to horror filsm with All About Evil. I'm not the first person to go for the drug comedy-ish selection, but HIGH School looks hilarious, and I love that the trailer doesn't give away too much and it has cast including Michael Chiklis, Adrien Brody & Colin Hanks.

Comedy continues with zombie films which included Zombie comedy Doghouse which has a new spin a la men are from England and women are from Venus - if Venus was covered in zombies! Completing the zombie double bill of the festival is Evil in the Time of Heroes, from Greece.

There is usually one film per year that gets me a bit leery, and often due to the films sexual content. In 2008, it was Donkey Punch, which actually ended up being one of the best films I've seen at the festival through the years. In 2009, it was Embodiment of Evil / Encarnação do Demônio which was completely messed up but 100% consensual so I just file that under 'not for me', and leave it at that. This year, I'm sure I won't be the only one decided on whether or not to see I Spit On Your Grave (2010), a remake of the 1978 film of the same name and both are brutal rape/revenge tales. My initial reaction was to have it be my miss this year, as I'm not a fan of any sexual violence nor revenge and I have no clue why this film would be remake. But, then I read that director Steven R. Monroe will be in attendance at the screening which flips my decision back to being curious as to what he has to say about the film, and I don't think that is a Q&A that I can miss.

I do have to say that I love a festival where the CLOSING GALA is The Human Centipede, which is literally one of the ickyest sounding films I've heard of in years. I'll admit that I didn't watch the trailer for because I don't want to deter myself from seeing it and considering the grossness of the premise (read the TADFF Page if you want to know the specifics of the surgical creation grossness). I have a feeling knowing any more might put me off seeing it, and I hate not seeing everything.

And this is just the feature films! There is also a fantastic looking shorts programs of Canadian and International magnitude which I'll chat in more detail before the festival.

16 Day and counting! See you there :)

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010 Feature Film Line Up

Alien vs Ninja
Writer/Dir: Seiji Chiba
Cast: Mika Hijii, Ben Hiura, Shuuji Kashiwabara, Masanori Mimoto, Yûki Ogoe, Donpei Tsuchihira
Japan
TADFF Page, IMDb Page, Trailer

All About Evil
Dir: Joshua Grannell
Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekkar, Noah Segan, Mink Stole, Cassandra Peterson
USA

TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Black Death
Dir: Christopher Smith (Severance)
Cast: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Carice van Houten
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Cargo
Dir: Ivan Engler
Cast: Anna-Katharina Schwabroh
Switzerland
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Centurion
Dir: Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday)
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Olga Kyrylenko, Dominic West
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Doghouse
Dir: Jake West (Evil Aliens)
Cast: Stephen Graham, Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Christina Cole
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Evil in The Time of Heroes / To kako - Stin epohi ton iroon
Dir: Yorgos Noussias (Evil)
Cast: Billy Zane, Dinos Avgoustidis, Orfeas Avgoustidis
Greece
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Heartless
Writer/Dir: Philip Ridley
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Clémence Poésy, Noel Clarke, Luke Treadaway
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

HIGH School
Dir: John Stalberg
Cast: Michael Chiklis, Adrien Brody, Colin Hanks, Matt Bush, Sean Marquette, Adhir Kalyan, Mykelti Williamson
USA
TADFF Page, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Human Centipede ** Closing Gala Film **
Dir: Tom Six
Cast: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura
The Netherlands
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Last Exorcism
Dir: Daniel Stamm (A Necessary Death)
Cast: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Iris Bahr, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley
USA
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu ** Opening Gala Film **
Dir: Henry Saine
Cast: Kyle Davis, Devin McGinn, Gregg Lawrence
USA
TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
Dir: Steven R. Monroe
Cast: Sarah Butler, Chad Lindberg, Tracey Walter, Daniel Franzese, Jeff Branson, Rodney Eastman, Andrew Howard
USA
TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Phobia 2 / Ha phraeng
Dirs: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Paween Purikitpanya, Songyos Sugmakanan, Parkpoom Wongpoom
Thailand
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Robogeisha
Writer/Dir: Noboru Iguchi (Machine Girl)
Cast: Aya Kiguchi, Naoto Takenaka, Takumi Saitô, Suzuki Matsuo, Yoshihiro Nishimura
Japan
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Rubber
Writer/Dir: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Thomas F. Duffy
France
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010 runs from August 13 - 20,2010 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010: Schedule & Line Up Announced!

1:15 PM | Labels: ,




Toronto After Dark is one of the big highlights of the festival year here in Toronto, where all the cult, genre, zombie and horror fans come out of the woodwork and are treated to a cinematic buffet of epic proportions. It has grown over the years and always has an exciting line up films along with fantastically enthusiastic audiences filled with great people. With the festival just over 2 weeks away, we finally have the film line up and schedule in our hot little hands... or rather viewed from our wide eyed... eyes.

I'm over the moon excited to see Centurion listed in the line up. It's directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent), a Roman epic, ensemble cast including Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Fish Tank), few-against-many-ness and a woman kicking butt. This is a yes, yes, yes! Actually Centurion was on my wishful thinking 2010 Most Anticipated Releases list, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't make it to regular theatres, and it still might - but I know that I'll be seeing it here! Continuing the epicness, we also Black Death starring Sean Bean in medieval/horror flick which a dash of witchcraft, but more of the witch hunting variety. Switching gears to the outer layer, one film that looks freaking fantastic is from Switzerland and set out even further than that: Cargo is set during a long term space flight hauling cargo with a medic attending the flight and I'm sure it must 'all go wrong' at some point, but it looks freaking beautiful and has a female protagonist - yay!

Getting a little scarier we keep trekking across the globe to Thailand for Phobia 2, a sequel from the directors 4bia / Phobia / See Prang, and I'm all for crazy scary Thai horror omnibuses! Bring 'em on! I've also heard fantastic things about the French film Rubber, which is literally about Robert, the sentient, killer tire. It looks hilarious from the trailer. Keeping it dark, we also have Heartless, which although I'm not a big 'darkness within' fan, I am a big fan of Jim Sturgess and this one looks like it's got a very interesting premise and very polished look although the trailer a little spoilery.

If you'd rather giggle your way through some films there certainly is a fair amount of comedy to choose from, whether it be in the form of a gorefest with Robogeisha, or ode to horror filsm with All About Evil. I'm not the first person to go for the drug comedy-ish selection, but HIGH School looks hilarious, and I love that the trailer doesn't give away too much and it has cast including Michael Chiklis, Adrien Brody & Colin Hanks.

Comedy continues with zombie films which included Zombie comedy Doghouse which has a new spin a la men are from England and women are from Venus - if Venus was covered in zombies! Completing the zombie double bill of the festival is Evil in the Time of Heroes, from Greece.

There is usually one film per year that gets me a bit leery, and often due to the films sexual content. In 2008, it was Donkey Punch, which actually ended up being one of the best films I've seen at the festival through the years. In 2009, it was Embodiment of Evil / Encarnação do Demônio which was completely messed up but 100% consensual so I just file that under 'not for me', and leave it at that. This year, I'm sure I won't be the only one decided on whether or not to see I Spit On Your Grave (2010), a remake of the 1978 film of the same name and both are brutal rape/revenge tales. My initial reaction was to have it be my miss this year, as I'm not a fan of any sexual violence nor revenge and I have no clue why this film would be remake. But, then I read that director Steven R. Monroe will be in attendance at the screening which flips my decision back to being curious as to what he has to say about the film, and I don't think that is a Q&A that I can miss.

I do have to say that I love a festival where the CLOSING GALA is The Human Centipede, which is literally one of the ickyest sounding films I've heard of in years. I'll admit that I didn't watch the trailer for because I don't want to deter myself from seeing it and considering the grossness of the premise (read the TADFF Page if you want to know the specifics of the surgical creation grossness). I have a feeling knowing any more might put me off seeing it, and I hate not seeing everything.

And this is just the feature films! There is also a fantastic looking shorts programs of Canadian and International magnitude which I'll chat in more detail before the festival.

16 Day and counting! See you there :)

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010 Feature Film Line Up

Alien vs Ninja
Writer/Dir: Seiji Chiba
Cast: Mika Hijii, Ben Hiura, Shuuji Kashiwabara, Masanori Mimoto, Yûki Ogoe, Donpei Tsuchihira
Japan
TADFF Page, IMDb Page, Trailer

All About Evil
Dir: Joshua Grannell
Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekkar, Noah Segan, Mink Stole, Cassandra Peterson
USA

TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Black Death
Dir: Christopher Smith (Severance)
Cast: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Carice van Houten
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Cargo
Dir: Ivan Engler
Cast: Anna-Katharina Schwabroh
Switzerland
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Centurion
Dir: Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday)
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Olga Kyrylenko, Dominic West
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Doghouse
Dir: Jake West (Evil Aliens)
Cast: Stephen Graham, Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Christina Cole
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Evil in The Time of Heroes / To kako - Stin epohi ton iroon
Dir: Yorgos Noussias (Evil)
Cast: Billy Zane, Dinos Avgoustidis, Orfeas Avgoustidis
Greece
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Heartless
Writer/Dir: Philip Ridley
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Clémence Poésy, Noel Clarke, Luke Treadaway
UK
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

HIGH School
Dir: John Stalberg
Cast: Michael Chiklis, Adrien Brody, Colin Hanks, Matt Bush, Sean Marquette, Adhir Kalyan, Mykelti Williamson
USA
TADFF Page, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Human Centipede ** Closing Gala Film **
Dir: Tom Six
Cast: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura
The Netherlands
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Last Exorcism
Dir: Daniel Stamm (A Necessary Death)
Cast: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Iris Bahr, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley
USA
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu ** Opening Gala Film **
Dir: Henry Saine
Cast: Kyle Davis, Devin McGinn, Gregg Lawrence
USA
TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
Dir: Steven R. Monroe
Cast: Sarah Butler, Chad Lindberg, Tracey Walter, Daniel Franzese, Jeff Branson, Rodney Eastman, Andrew Howard
USA
TADFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Phobia 2 / Ha phraeng
Dirs: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Paween Purikitpanya, Songyos Sugmakanan, Parkpoom Wongpoom
Thailand
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Robogeisha
Writer/Dir: Noboru Iguchi (Machine Girl)
Cast: Aya Kiguchi, Naoto Takenaka, Takumi Saitô, Suzuki Matsuo, Yoshihiro Nishimura
Japan
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

Rubber
Writer/Dir: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Thomas F. Duffy
France
TADFF Page, Official Website, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010 runs from August 13 - 20,2010 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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[2010.07.29] CAREER FIRST FOR JJ JIA

12:35 PM | Labels: , , , , , , ,

courtesy of takungpao.com


The Shaw and Sil-Metropole release THE JADE AND THE PEARL (FEI CHUI MING JU) will be released on August 4. Yesterday four princesses including JJ Jia (Ga Hiu Sun), Macy Chen Mei Si, Christine Kuo and Jess Shum Cheuk Ying, along with two palace maidens Sherry Chen Song,
Cilla Lok Tung and director Chun Siu Chun met with the press and toasted to the film's opening success.

Yesterday the princess wore either low cut or high cut, the sexiest was JJ. She laughed and said, "I am only sexier around the chest, other regions are very secured. (Deliberate beauty contest?) I am no competition, I got a lot fatter. I just didn't want to waste this dress. (Getting fat because you are happy form dating Shum Chun Hin?) We are just good friends, we aren't dating yet. However we have known each other for years, so the chances are better. (Do you have feelings for him?) You have feelings for friends too, but right now my career isn't stable yet. I don't want to date. (Because Nat Chan Pak Cheung doesn't want you to date?) He has told the entire company that hopefully everyone would focus on work, but it wasn't as severe as the magazines described. He doesn't object to normal exchanges and hasn't banned dated. He only
hopes that everyone would stabilize their careers first." JJ also said that she did not like casual dating because she wanted marriage. Reporters urged her to go after her idol Louis Koo Tin Lok because he should be married. She joked, "He has so many female fans, I am afraid that someone would assassinate me. I am already happy to death about being able to work with him." As for Shum Chun Hin's resemblance to Goo Jai, she joked, "If he does then it's great, I don't even have to think about it!"

While boyfriend Eric Suen Yiu Wai said that he was unhappy on his micro blog, Macy was clueless. "You have to ask him, but normal people would occasionally have bad moods, maybe it's the rain! (How do you plan to cheer him up?) I will call him." He might be "cooped" up from a lack of release? She joked, "Koo Cho Lam? (Would you kiss him?) It's a secret, I am not telling you." Earlier a writer unveiled a male artist who forced women to go to bed and pray with him. Suen Yiu Wai was one of the suspects. Recently some magazines followed up on the story. Macy
only thought it was funny and supported her boyfriend as not that type of people. She would only read it like a fantasy novel. She said, "Something like this definitely wouldn't happen to him, but artists have a hard time controlling what other people write. Although it's unfair to
him, what can he do? Hopefully everyone would just laugh it off and stop writing even if they have suspicions."

Kuo Wan Wai who has been saying that she wanted to lose weight has not shown much result. She explained, "I already have improved a little. In addition earlier I was bloated, but I don't want to exercise. I don't want to have muscles all over, I don't want to turn into Mr. Hong
Kong." In the new film, she and the other princesses learned womanly ways from the Carlo Ng Ka Lok played eunuch. She said, "My family is very strict, normally I can't behave like this. In order to play the character well, I worked very hard on learning but for now I have no use
for it. It will be useful in the future with a boyfriend because I will have to entertain him. (Which princess performed the best?) Ka Lok did the best, he was very natural pretending to be a girl, even I feel I am no match for him!"

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[2010.07.29] JENNIFER TSE PREFERS MOVIE OVER MONEY

12:07 PM | Labels: , , ,

Jennifer Tse Ting Ting was already in trouble on the first day of her first film BRUCE LEE. Reportedly she was unfamiliar with the script and had frequent bad takes, and because she was in a rush to her date she rushed the production. Ting Ting yesterday defended herself on the radio. She honestly admitted that her boyfriend Andy On Chi Kit was keeping her company in Guangzhou, she was very nervous on her first day and kept him away from the set. She also said that she only worked on 3 hours on her first day. Thus after work she was still reluctant to leave, hoping to stay and watching other actors' performance.

Ting Ting also said that before the film started production the script and the production date were changed many times, but each time the script changed, her friend would read the script to her so she would be prepared. she also said that when she was in school, she definitely would finish her homework before the test because she did not like to go to a test without knowing anything. Why would she not read the script then? In addition on her first day she worked on a scene in which Aarif Rahman (Lee Chi Ting) followed her. It had no dialogue. The director only asked her to walk like a commercial shoot. After the shoot the director even complimented on her marks and did not complain about numerous bad takes.

Reportedly she used the production's car to visit Guangzhou with her boyfriend. She said aside from work she did not leave the hotel, not to mention visiting Guangzhou. She guessed that because she was Patrick Tse Yin and Deborah Li (Dik Bor Lai)'s daughter, everyone thought that she had the princess syndrome. She also said that LEE was her first so right now the film came before everything else. She would rather make less money to focus on her acting.

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[2010.07.29] HUO SIYAN WINS PRAISES AS THE PRINCESS

12:05 PM | Labels: , , ,

courtesy of takungpao.com


The August 19 costume comedy release ADVENTURE OF THE KING (LUNG FUNG DIM) recently published stills of actress Huo Siyan in a male disguise. Huo Siyan looked very heroic and during the costume fitting she even raised her fan and jokingly made a pose, "Do I look like Tang Bohu? Let me show you my Huang Xiaoming trademark smile!"

In ADVENTURE OF THE KING, Huo Siyan plays a talkative princess who often conducted lengthy "language harassment" of her brother the King, Richie Jen (Yam Yin Chai). This was also her first comedy film. Huo Siyan said, "This character is very different from my past silver screen image. She is just as talkative as the Veritable Tang Monk in THE CHINESE ODYSSEY, basically her mouth never stops. The character's movement, expression, voice and speech have to be very fast, very high, very exaggerated." Huo Siyan said that every time she delivered her lines she felt like she was almost out of breath. "Not only do I have to talk fast, my expression and physical movement also have to have a comedy feel. Basically I have to give my all to the performance." Yet this earned her the compliment of "cute little shrew" from Yam Yin Chai. The director also expressed that Siyan absolutely was the female lead in the first 20 minutes of the film. After watching the entire film her character left a deep impression with people, the performance was brilliant.

Actually her comedy filled performance was due to Law Kar Ying. Law Kar Ying expressed that in this film he taught Huo Siyan everything he knew. Huo Siyan replied that Law Kar Ying also taught her a little secret, to have a few sips of wine to warm up before delivering a lot of lines. The feeling afterward mobilized the entire body and the mind was be particularly clear. No matter how complicated the lines were they would be no problem.

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[2010.07.29] A NIU HOPES FOR AUDIENCE SUPPORT

12:03 PM | Labels: , , , , , , , ,

courtesy of takungpao.com


The "New Folk Song Prince", Malaysian singer A Niu appeared at a Mainland home shopping channel's 2nd anniversary celebration and talked about his upcoming debut as director, ICE KACANG PUPPY LOVE (CHOR LUEN HUNG DAU BING).

A Niu's debut as a director, ICE KACANG PUPPY LOVE, will be released in August. It will be a story about young people who grew up in a small Malaysian village in the early 90s. A Niu expressed that after a singing contest he became a singer, but ultimately he still had his movie dreams.

After years in show business and accumulating many friendships, A Niu finally had the chance to fulfill his dream and gathered all the heavyweight "Malay Gang" in the business. He invited Angelica Lee Sinjie, Gary Chaw (Cho Gat), Victor Huang (Wong Bun Guoon), Eric Moo (Mo Kai Yin), Penny Dai Pui Nei, Nicholas Teoh (Cheung Tung Leung) and others to guest star. A Niu even revealed details from the production. Speaking of Lee Sinjie, A Niu felt that she deserved her Golden Horse Best Actress Award as working with her he was able to get into character very easily. As for Jasmine Leong Jing Yu, A Niu felt that her eyes knew how to speak and thus arranged for zero line for her in the film. From the beginning to the end she expressed herself with her eyes. A Niu very much hoped that the audience would like the film and be able to support it at the cinemas!

As for the title, A Niu expressed that he wanted to describe first love with red bean ice. First love, like having red bean ice in the hottest afternoon, is sweet at first bite. Then some ice follows, so icy that it hurts a little. Yet very quickly it melts.

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Inception Digs to a Deeper Level: Canadian, North American, UK & Australian Box Office July 23, 2010 Weekend

3:39 PM | Labels: ,

Inception stays at top of the box office in both North America and Canada in it's second week and soars to the #1 spot in Australia on it's opening weekend there. New releases this week include Salt opening at #2 in both Canada & North America and Ramona and Beezus opening at #8 in Canada #6 in North America. But, what really nailed it out of the park was Toy Story 3 which opened in the UK at £21M, which easily puts it as the #1 gross of 2010 leaving The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in the dust with it's just newly set record at £13. Heck it's even more than the 2009 record of £19 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ! I can't believe it!

Top 20 Movies in Canada for the July 23, 2010 weekend
1. Inception
2. Salt *
3. Despicable Me
4. Toy Story 3
5. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
6. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
7. Grown Ups
8. Ramona and Beezus *
9. The Last Airbender
10. Predators
11. Piché : Entre ciel et terre
12. The Kids Are All Right
13. Knight and Day
14. Mel Karade Rabba
15. The Karate Kid
16. Cabotins *
17. IMAX: Hubble 3D
18. Khatta Meetha *
19. The Girl Who Played With Fire
20. I Am Love

Top 20 Movies in North America for the July 23, 2010 weekend
1. Inception
2. Salt *
3. Despicable Me
4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
5. Toy Story 3
6. Ramona and Beezus *
7. Grown Ups
8. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
9. The Last Airbender
10. Predators
11. The Kids Are All Right
12. Knight and Day
13. The Karate Kid
14. Cyrus
15. The Girl Who Played With Fire
16. Iron Man 2
17. Winter's Bone
18. IMAX: Hubble 3D
19. Khatta Meetha *
20. The A-Team

Top 10 Movies in the UK for the July 23, 2010 weekend
1. Toy Story 3 *
2. Inception
3. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
4. Shrek Forever After
5. The Rebound *
6. Predators
7. Khatta Meetha *
8. Get Him to the Greek
9. Splice *
10. Leaving

Top 20 Movies in Australia for the July 22 - 25, 2010 weekend
1. Inception *
2. Knight & Day
3. Toy Story 3
4. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
5. The Karate Kid
6. Shrek Forever After
7. Predators
8. Grown Ups
9. Marmaduke
10. Animal Kingdom
11. Get Him to the Greek
12. The Waiting City
13. I Am Love
14. Creation
15. The Runaways
16. Mel Karade Rabba
17. Greenberg *
18. Khatta Meetha *
19. The Hedgehog
20. Sex and the City 2

* indicates opening weekend in noted location

Source: Canada & North America info, UK info, Australia Info

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Inception Digs to a Deeper Level: Canadian, North American, UK & Australian Box Office July 23, 2010 Weekend

3:39 PM | Labels: ,

Inception stays at top of the box office in both North America and Canada in it's second week and soars to the #1 spot in Australia on it's opening weekend there. New releases this week include Salt opening at #2 in both Canada & North America and Ramona and Beezus opening at #8 in Canada #6 in North America. But, what really nailed it out of the park was Toy Story 3 which opened in the UK at £21M, which easily puts it as the #1 gross of 2010 leaving The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in the dust with it's just newly set record at £13. Heck it's even more than the 2009 record of £19 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ! I can't believe it!

Top 20 Movies in Canada for the July 23, 2010 weekend
1. Inception
2. Salt *
3. Despicable Me
4. Toy Story 3
5. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
6. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
7. Grown Ups
8. Ramona and Beezus *
9. The Last Airbender
10. Predators
11. Piché : Entre ciel et terre
12. The Kids Are All Right
13. Knight and Day
14. Mel Karade Rabba
15. The Karate Kid
16. Cabotins *
17. IMAX: Hubble 3D
18. Khatta Meetha *
19. The Girl Who Played With Fire
20. I Am Love

Top 20 Movies in North America for the July 23, 2010 weekend
1. Inception
2. Salt *
3. Despicable Me
4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
5. Toy Story 3
6. Ramona and Beezus *
7. Grown Ups
8. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
9. The Last Airbender
10. Predators
11. The Kids Are All Right
12. Knight and Day
13. The Karate Kid
14. Cyrus
15. The Girl Who Played With Fire
16. Iron Man 2
17. Winter's Bone
18. IMAX: Hubble 3D
19. Khatta Meetha *
20. The A-Team

Top 10 Movies in the UK for the July 23, 2010 weekend
1. Toy Story 3 *
2. Inception
3. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
4. Shrek Forever After
5. The Rebound *
6. Predators
7. Khatta Meetha *
8. Get Him to the Greek
9. Splice *
10. Leaving

Top 20 Movies in Australia for the July 22 - 25, 2010 weekend
1. Inception *
2. Knight & Day
3. Toy Story 3
4. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
5. The Karate Kid
6. Shrek Forever After
7. Predators
8. Grown Ups
9. Marmaduke
10. Animal Kingdom
11. Get Him to the Greek
12. The Waiting City
13. I Am Love
14. Creation
15. The Runaways
16. Mel Karade Rabba
17. Greenberg *
18. Khatta Meetha *
19. The Hedgehog
20. Sex and the City 2

* indicates opening weekend in noted location

Source: Canada & North America info, UK info, Australia Info

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TIFF 2010: First Big List of Titles Announced!

3:20 PM | Labels: ,

The first big slew of titles has been announced for TIFF 2010 from the Gala, Special Presentations and Master programmes and there are so many films to get excited about but the one that literally made me jump for joy is Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and starring Carey Mulligan (An Education), Andrew Garfield (Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Keira Knightly, Sally Hawkins and Charlotte Rampling, and is based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro (see book review here). I highly recommend reading the book as soon as you can, not only because it's one of the best books I've read in years but also because it's such a great story that the less you know the better and the film trailer show way to much. The writing style of the book takes a bit getting used to, but it's well worth it reading.

Some of the other titles that jumped off the screen at me were In A Better World directed by Susanne Bier (After the Wedding / Efter brylluppet) and starring Ulrich Thomsen (Fear Me Not / Den du frygter), Buried from directed Rodrigo Cortés and starring Ryan Reynolds and L'Amour Fou a documentary on Yves Saint Laurent from director Pierre Thoretton.

The Gala announced have some heavy hitters with Black Swan from director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Pi) and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey & Winona Ryder and Philip Seymour Hoffman's feature film directorial debut Jack Goes Boating starrring John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan & Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Acclaimed directors that are hitting the festival this year include Woody Allen with You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Stephen Frears with Tamara Drewe, Michael Winterbottom with The Trip, Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) with Biutiful and Mike Leigh with Another Year, all a part of the Special Presentations program.

Several actors with multiple titles in the line up including Catherine Deneuve (Potiche, The Big Picture) and Rachelle Lefevre (Casino Jack and Barney's Visions) and Twi-fans will know Barney's Vision as the film that was the source of the schedulling issues and therefore led to her role of Victoria in Twilight and New Moon being recast as Bryce Dallas Howard for Eclipse.

I know we are all getting excited about the titles and want to get into planning mode, and although it really will all come down to the schedule there are a few things to consider when making your choices. Remember that the new premium screenings status is in are in effect this year and may apply to World or North American Premieres and to jog your memory, premium screenings are described as follows: "We have refined our definition of a premium screening around the experience you will have. These are screenings that are World or North American premieres and offer a premium experience including a red carpet event." Another consideration is that several titles have release dates for during the festival including Easy A, The Town, Jack Goes Boating which are currently slated to be released Friday September 17, 2010.

Here is a list of the most recently released titles:

Galas

The Bang Bang Club
Dir: Steven Silver
Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman, Taylor Kitsch, Neels Van Jaarsveld, Frank Rautenbach
Canada/South Africa
World Premiere

Barney's Version
Dir: Richard J. Lewis
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre, Scott Speedman
Canada/Italy
North American Premiere

Black Swan
Dir: Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Pi)
Cast: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
USA
North American Premiere

Casino Jack
Dir: George Hickenlooper
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Kelly Preston, Rachelle Lefevre, Jon Lovitz
Canada
World Premiere

The Conspirator
Dir: Robert Redford
Cast: James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Tom Wilkinson
USA
World Premiere

The Debt
Dir: John Madden
Cast: Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington
USA
North American Premiere

The Housemaid
Dir: Im Sang-Soo
South Korea
North American Premiere

Janie Jones
Dir: David M. Rosenthal
USA
World Premiere

The King's Speech
Dir: Tom Hooper
Cast: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush
United Kingdom/Australia
North American Premiere

Little White Lies
Dir: Guillaume Canet (Tell No One)
Cast: François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoît Magimel, Gilles Lellouche, Jean Dujardin, Laurent Lafitte, Valérie Bonneton, Pascale Arbillot
France
World Premiere

Peep World
Dir: Barry Blaustein
USA
World Premiere

Potiche
Dir: François Ozon,
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu
France
North American Premiere

The Town
Dir: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper
USA
North American Premiere

The Way
Dir: Emilio Estevez
Cast: Martin Sheen
USA
World Premiere

West is West
Dir: Andy De Emmony
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Special Presentations

Another Year
Dir: Mike Leigh
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman, David Bradley, Karina Fernandez, Martin Savage
United Kingdom
North American Premiere

Beginners
Dir: Mike Mills (Thumbsucker)
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor
USA
World Premiere

The Big Picture
Dir: Eric Lartigau
Cast: Romain Duris, Marina Foïs, Niels Arestrup, Catherine Deneuve
France
World Premiere

Biutiful
Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel)
Cast: Javier Bardem
Spain/Mexico
North American Premiere

Blue Valentine
Dir: Derek Cianfrance
Cast: Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling
USA
Canadian Premiere

Brighton Rock
Dri: Rowan Joffe
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Buried
Dir: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Ryan Reynolds
Spain/USA
Canadian Premiere

Conviction
Dir: Tony Goldwyn
Cast: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell
USA
World Premiere

Cirkus Columbia
Dir: Danis Tanovic
Bosnia and Herzegovina
International Premiere

Dhobi Ghat
Dir: Kiran Rao
India
World Premiere

Easy A
Dir: Will Gluck
Cast: Emma Stone
USA
World Premiere

Henry's Crime
Dir: Malcolm Venville
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Fisher Stevens, Peter Stormare, Danny Hoch, Bill Duke
USA
World Premiere

The Illusionist
Dir: Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville)
United Kingdom
North American Premiere

In A Better World
Dir: Susanne Bier (After the Wedding / Efter brylluppet, Open Hearts)
Cast: Ulrich Thomsen, Mikael Persbrandt
Denmark/Sweden
International Premiere

I Saw the Devil
Dir: Kim Jee-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad, The Weird)
South Korea
North American Premiere

It's Kind of a Funny Story
Dirs: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden,
Cast: Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts, Zach Galifianakis
USA
World Premiere

Jack Goes Boating
Dir: Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Cast: John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan, Philip Seymour Hoffman
USA
International Premiere

L'Amour Fou
Dir: Pierre Thoretton
Documentary on Yves Saint Laurent
France
World Premiere

The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Dir: Andrew Lau
Hong Kong
North American Premiere

Lope
Dir: Andrucha Waddington
Brazil/Spain
World Premiere

Love Crime
Dir: Alain Corneau
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Ludivine Sagnier
France
International Premiere

Made in Dagenham
Dir: Nigel Cole
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike United Kingdom
World Premiere

Miral
Dir: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
United Kingdom/Israel/France
North American Premiere

Never Let Me Go
Dir: Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo)
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightly, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Norwegian Wood
Dir: Tran Anh Hung
Cast: Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara
Japan
North American Premiere

Outside the Law
Dir: Rachid Bouchareb
France/Algeria/Tunisia/Italy/Belgium
North American Premiere

Rabbit Hole
Dir: John Cameron Mitchell
Cast: David Lindsay-Abaire. Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart
USA
World Premiere

A Screaming Man
Dir: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
France/Belgium/Chad
North American Premiere

Stone
Dir: John Curran
Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Frances Conroy
USA
World Premiere

Submarine
Dir: Richard Ayoade
United Kingdom
World Premiere

That Girl in Yellow Boots
Dir: Anurag Kashyap
India
North American Premiere

Tamara Drewe
Dir: Stephen Frears
United Kingdom
North American Premiere

The Trip
Dir: Michael Winterbottom
Cat: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Trust
Dir: David Schwimmer
Cast: Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Tom McCarthy
USA
World Premiere

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts
United Kingdom/USA/Spain
North American Premiere

Masters

Mysteries of Lisbon
Dir: Raul Ruiz
Portugal/France
World Premiere

See Press Release: Celebrated Actors And Filmmakers Take Centre Stage As TIFF Announces Stellar Lineup Of Galas And Special Presentations

The Toronto International Film Festival 2010 runs from September 9 - 19, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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