[2011.0519] WENDI MURDOCH DENIES DISPUTE WITH ZHANG ZIYI

Hollywood director Wayne Wang directed SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN held a press conference on the 17th. Producer Wendi Murdoch appeared along with Li Bingbing and Gianna Jun Ji-Hyun. As for the earlier piping hot Zhang Ziyi resignation, Wendi Murdoch clarified that at the time Zhang Ziyi resigned due to health and scheduling issues. She stated, "Our relationship now remains decent."

The film originally was three women Wendi Murdoch, Zhang Ziyi and MGM boss lady's collaboration project and Zhang Ziyi was confirmed to star. Yet before the film started production, Zhang Ziyi who was in the "ink spilling gate" incident suddenly resigned. Reportedly Zhang Ziyi and Wendi Murdoch were at odds over conflict of interest. Wendi Murdoch said that Zhang Ziyi resigned indeed due to health and scheduling issues. "Ziyi was ill at the time, the timing wasn't right either so she didn't perform." As for her relationship with Zhang Ziyi now, Wendi Murdoch said, "I saw Ziyi in Shanghai, it's still pretty good." Later Wendi Murdoch talked about exploring the Chinese market, she hoped that more and more Hollywood producers and directors would work with China, focus on telling current Chinese stories, and write scripts with Hollywood teams. She also hoped to through SNOW Li Bingbing and Jun Ji-Hyun would become big Hollywood stars.

Speaking of the cross border collaboration with Jun Ji-Hyun, Li Bingbing thought that language was not the only way to communicate. "In the film at the age of seven, we promised that we would miss each other for a lifetime. We tried to get a perception of each other despite not understanding each other." In the film they communicated in English. Li Bingbing thought even more exchanges came from perception. "That exchange was rather magical. When I got to the set, I already saw Jun Ji-Hyun completely in character. When our hands first touched, we had a electrifying feeling."