QUOTE
Hollywood East: Empires of the Deep
China's about to make a move into Hollywood, and it's going to spend some serious cash doing so. Originally titled Mermaid Island, the newly-dubbed Empires of the Deep will be a $100 million USD "English-language tale of mermaids, mermen and a hero who saves the world from an evil empire". Monica Belluci will star as the lead mermaid; Sharon Stone was once attached as well but has since been dropped (something she said, apparently). Unconfirmed rumors have also tabbed Derek Zoolander as the lead merman. The film will rely heavily on CGI, and according to producer and chief financier Harrison Liang, it will be "something like 'Star Wars' under the sea".
The story was originally written by Chinese national Jiang Hongyu, but the rest of the production team has been lifted straight out of Hollywood. Irvin Kershner, owing to his undeniably relevant experience on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, will be on board as a producer, while the simply named Pitof will direct.
Due out in 2010, this Fontelysee Pictures project hopes to be a bigger hit with North American audiences than the 2007 South Korean sci-fi film D-War, which grossed only $11 million (20% of its total revenues) stateside.
China's about to make a move into Hollywood, and it's going to spend some serious cash doing so. Originally titled Mermaid Island, the newly-dubbed Empires of the Deep will be a $100 million USD "English-language tale of mermaids, mermen and a hero who saves the world from an evil empire". Monica Belluci will star as the lead mermaid; Sharon Stone was once attached as well but has since been dropped (something she said, apparently). Unconfirmed rumors have also tabbed Derek Zoolander as the lead merman. The film will rely heavily on CGI, and according to producer and chief financier Harrison Liang, it will be "something like 'Star Wars' under the sea".
The story was originally written by Chinese national Jiang Hongyu, but the rest of the production team has been lifted straight out of Hollywood. Irvin Kershner, owing to his undeniably relevant experience on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, will be on board as a producer, while the simply named Pitof will direct.
Due out in 2010, this Fontelysee Pictures project hopes to be a bigger hit with North American audiences than the 2007 South Korean sci-fi film D-War, which grossed only $11 million (20% of its total revenues) stateside.
idk.. does it sound like a bust to you?
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/11/15/hollywood_east.php
http://empiresofthedeep.com/ (official movie site)
http://chinafilmjournal.com/2008/11/11/emp...rld-in-chinese/
QUOTE
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華語電影刊Empires of the Deep, or Waterworld in Chinese
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This post was published at November 11, 2008, and it was categorized as Commentary, Film News.
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You know that China has fully entered the world of late capitalism when good Chinese folks are willing to blow $100 million on a sci-fi film for an American audience. Today’s Variety reported developments on this “ultra-ambitious” CGI film known as Empires of the Deep, an English-language tale of “mermaids, mermen and a hero who saves the world from an evil empire”. The $100 mil budget is impressive considering they were it was a $50 million project one year ago. Previously called Cutthroat Island, I mean Mermaid Island, it will be directed by special-effects guy Pitof of Catwoman fame (they actually mention that in Variety), with a screenplay written by Randall Frakes, and Irvin Kershner attached as producer.
Kershner, Frakes, and um, Pitof are not exactly household names. Sci-fi fans will recognize Kershner as the nominal director of The Empire Strikes Back. Those fans will be equally quick to note that George Lucas was fully in control of that blockbuster. That’s not to say that Kershner, the quintessential journeyman director, did not have his moments, including the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars and the bootleg Bond film Never Say Never Again. It is to say that Kershner has not directed a film since 1990’s RoboCop 2, and has only one real producer credit, a direct-to-video number. And he is 85.
Frakes has been more active recently, scripting (actually, co-scripting) a number of direct-to-DVD actioners starring Mario Van Peebles, Charlie O’Connell (brother of Jerry), and Mark Dacascos (martial artist, now of Iron Chef America fame) According to IMDB voting, his most widely-viewed work is 1987’s Hell Comes to Frogtown with then-wrestling star “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Screenwriters aren’t wholly responsible for the fate of their works, of course. Acting, directing, production values count. If only he’d had Irvin Kershner to direct. I think the script will be scripted first by co-writer Jiang Hongyu, and then translated into English and film convention by Frakes, who has done is share of co-writing and novelization work.
And the mono-monikered Pitof? Again, I went to trusty IMDB to find his next film, called Only in New York. One of the user comments is titled simply, OMG! Pitof? NOOOOO!!!!! Apparently the commenter fears for the career of Jim Cavieziel (The Passion of the Christ, The Thin Red Line). To his credit, Pitof directed the well-received Vidocq, the Gallic fantasy which was the first filmed entirely with high-def Sony-Panavision cameras, using technology that Lucas developed for the Star Wars prequels. And he did visual effects work with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on City of Lost Children and Alien Resurrection.
What’s really going on? Even with the weak dollar, 100 million is still nothing to sneeze at. The Variety fluff piece goes on to say the film is being put together by “China’s Fontelysee Pictures in collaboration with the Emagine Studio of Hollywood.” Though that line depicts a grand US-Chinese partnership, I believe these two entitles are in fact run by the same people, and that “Emagine” is a Chinese company with offices in the US. Check out for yourself: here is the Chinese Emagine site, and here is the US Emagine site. Even the name “Emagine” seems designed to conflate it with Imagine Studios, a real Hollywood entity, much in the manner of those Asian knockoff “Adidos” and “Pummas”. Same with Irv Kershner - the very mention of his name is supposed to evoke sci-fi spectacular, though his involvement in high-profile movies is two-decades old. Chinese entrepreneurs will soon learn Western audiences and mass-media are more sophisticated than that.
The real connection between the two, and the actual producer of this film, is “Harrison Liang, PhD” whose bio on the Chinese site states he was an investment banker who moved to China in 2001, and is now Fontelysee’s CEO as well as head of China’s sister city program. Somehow I feel comforted that a competent businessman will be in charge instead of an 85-year-old. Even if this venture does not become, as Mr. Liang puts it, “Star Wars under the sea”, it will be one interesting step into the brave new world in commercial movie-making.
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華語電影刊Empires of the Deep, or Waterworld in Chinese
About China Film Journal
華語電影刊
Feed Subscriptions
RSS Things
RSS Comments
Blogroll
Asian Film Archive
batgwa.com
Chinese Cinema
Chinese Cinema Site, by Shelly Kraicer
Chinese Cinema: An Annotated Directory of Internet Resources
cityonfire.com | Asian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Film, Cinema, Movie, DVD, Reviews, Forum
Electric Sheep Magazine - A Deviant View of Cinema
Film Journal International News
GreenCine
Hong Kong Film Net
Jue Zhou _ Zhou Xun
Kaiju Shakedown: Variety Asia Online
Kung Fu Cult Cinema
LoveHKFilm.com
pigs and battleships
The Cine File
The Film Journal
Tom Vick’s Asian Cinema Blog
WordPress Planet
Zhang Ziyi Home
时光网
电影中国
Categories
Commentary
Events
Film Festivals
Film News
Film Reviews
Interviews
Uncategorized
Archives
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
Tags
北京 香港 action actors Andy Lau ang lee arthouse award ban beijing biopic business Cannes censorship chen kaige china chinese cinema death documentary festival film film review films france funeral historical history hong kong independent jackie chan jet li jia zhangke movie movies olympics people PRC SARFT society taiwan Tang Wei tsai mingliang zhang ziyi Zhao Tao
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This post was published at November 11, 2008, and it was categorized as Commentary, Film News.
You can follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback.
You know that China has fully entered the world of late capitalism when good Chinese folks are willing to blow $100 million on a sci-fi film for an American audience. Today’s Variety reported developments on this “ultra-ambitious” CGI film known as Empires of the Deep, an English-language tale of “mermaids, mermen and a hero who saves the world from an evil empire”. The $100 mil budget is impressive considering they were it was a $50 million project one year ago. Previously called Cutthroat Island, I mean Mermaid Island, it will be directed by special-effects guy Pitof of Catwoman fame (they actually mention that in Variety), with a screenplay written by Randall Frakes, and Irvin Kershner attached as producer.
Kershner, Frakes, and um, Pitof are not exactly household names. Sci-fi fans will recognize Kershner as the nominal director of The Empire Strikes Back. Those fans will be equally quick to note that George Lucas was fully in control of that blockbuster. That’s not to say that Kershner, the quintessential journeyman director, did not have his moments, including the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars and the bootleg Bond film Never Say Never Again. It is to say that Kershner has not directed a film since 1990’s RoboCop 2, and has only one real producer credit, a direct-to-video number. And he is 85.
Frakes has been more active recently, scripting (actually, co-scripting) a number of direct-to-DVD actioners starring Mario Van Peebles, Charlie O’Connell (brother of Jerry), and Mark Dacascos (martial artist, now of Iron Chef America fame) According to IMDB voting, his most widely-viewed work is 1987’s Hell Comes to Frogtown with then-wrestling star “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Screenwriters aren’t wholly responsible for the fate of their works, of course. Acting, directing, production values count. If only he’d had Irvin Kershner to direct. I think the script will be scripted first by co-writer Jiang Hongyu, and then translated into English and film convention by Frakes, who has done is share of co-writing and novelization work.
And the mono-monikered Pitof? Again, I went to trusty IMDB to find his next film, called Only in New York. One of the user comments is titled simply, OMG! Pitof? NOOOOO!!!!! Apparently the commenter fears for the career of Jim Cavieziel (The Passion of the Christ, The Thin Red Line). To his credit, Pitof directed the well-received Vidocq, the Gallic fantasy which was the first filmed entirely with high-def Sony-Panavision cameras, using technology that Lucas developed for the Star Wars prequels. And he did visual effects work with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on City of Lost Children and Alien Resurrection.
What’s really going on? Even with the weak dollar, 100 million is still nothing to sneeze at. The Variety fluff piece goes on to say the film is being put together by “China’s Fontelysee Pictures in collaboration with the Emagine Studio of Hollywood.” Though that line depicts a grand US-Chinese partnership, I believe these two entitles are in fact run by the same people, and that “Emagine” is a Chinese company with offices in the US. Check out for yourself: here is the Chinese Emagine site, and here is the US Emagine site. Even the name “Emagine” seems designed to conflate it with Imagine Studios, a real Hollywood entity, much in the manner of those Asian knockoff “Adidos” and “Pummas”. Same with Irv Kershner - the very mention of his name is supposed to evoke sci-fi spectacular, though his involvement in high-profile movies is two-decades old. Chinese entrepreneurs will soon learn Western audiences and mass-media are more sophisticated than that.
The real connection between the two, and the actual producer of this film, is “Harrison Liang, PhD” whose bio on the Chinese site states he was an investment banker who moved to China in 2001, and is now Fontelysee’s CEO as well as head of China’s sister city program. Somehow I feel comforted that a competent businessman will be in charge instead of an 85-year-old. Even if this venture does not become, as Mr. Liang puts it, “Star Wars under the sea”, it will be one interesting step into the brave new world in commercial movie-making.
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