Hong Kong comic’s godfather Wong Yuk Long and famous cartoonist Ma Wing Shing attended the Hong Kong Animation Festival held in Shanghai, they also made a secret trip to a certain Online gaming company to negotiate the shooting of the first 3D wuxia film. The film will be adapted from Wong Yuk Long’s 3D online game Weapons of the Gods, it would be finance by the online gaming company and other companies, Tsui Hark will be invited to direct the film. Tsui will be able to collaborate with Andy Lau again as he was selected to be the male lead, Nicholas Tse and Charlene Choi will be invited to be the second male lead and female lead respectively.

Online game Weapons of the Gods which is adapted from Wong Yuk Long’s comics, it is well-followed throughout Asia and the game made used of 3D technology in its graphics which Wong Yuk Long anticipated. To further promote Weapons of the Gods, with Wong’s good friendship in the Hong Kong movie industry, it would be promoted together with Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Other than that, the online gaming company will collaborate with Tsui Hark production team for Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame to shoot a 3D wuxia film Weapons of the Gods with a 200 million budget.

Considering the 3D film selling point, it would be an attraction to wuxia fans what’s the effect with 3D visual effects. The male lead had been decided to be Nicholas Tse who was previously cast in Wong Yuk Long’s Dragon Tiger Gate, Andy Lau is also invited to join the cast. Nicholas and Andy would be the clan leaders opposing each other, thus there will be many exciting 3D battle scenes. For the female lead, Charlene Choi will be invited as she would get to collaborate with Andy again.

news from: ent.163.com

These few days, director Tsui Hark and Andy Lau were in Venice to promote Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

The yule.sohu team managed to arrange a photo shoot at the beach, they were asked to challenge each other.

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Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame held a party at the 67th Venice International Film Festival on 6 September. Director Tsui Hark and wife Shi Nansheng, the cast Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Andy Lau and Huayi Brothers boss Wang Zhonglei attended.

Carina whom was wearing a cleavage revealing dress played mysterious during entrance as she held a mask. Carina and Tsui Hark’s wife both wore red for the party whereas Li Bingbing wore a shoulder revealing black dress, despite her low profile black dress, but the diamond bracelet on Bingbing’s hand was eye catching.

All males – Andy, Tsui Hark and Wang Zhonglei wore Western suits for the event.

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Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is the only Chinese film competing in 67th Venice International Film Festival, after receiving high praise in the preview, the world premiere was held at the film festival on 5 September. Director Tsui Hark, producer Wang Zhonglei and Shi Nansheng, the cast Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau and Deng Chao walked down the premiere’s red carpet at Lido Island. Maggie Cheung also showed up to wish Carina all the best to win the Best Actress award, but she did not attended the premiere.

When the entourage entered the screening hall, the audience immediately stand up to applause in welcoming them, the cast in turn waved to thank the audience. When the name of Tsui Hark appeared on the silver screen, the audience began to applause, it was the same reception received when Andy, Li Bingbing and Carina’s name appeared on the screen, this is a sight hardly seen in premiere.

After the screening, the applause last 10 minutes as the world once again witness the exciting wuxia film of Tsui Hark. Other than the enthusiastic audience, the head of the judging panel – Quentin Tarantino was also among the audience, his presence resulted in a small commotion.

With regards to the audience’s concentration on the film, in several exciting action scenes, the audience paid close attention. During the first fight between Andy and Bingbing, at the segment when Andy splash water on her, the audience burst into laughter. Andy also smiled and looked at Bingbing. When the entourage was leaving the cinema, Carina walked rather fast, Andy whom was walking behind her scolded her: “Wu Zhetian! Walk slower!”

There was a canoeing competition in Venice that day, most of the route needed to be changed, the entourage need to walk from their hotel to the boat that bring them to Lido Island. Along the 5 minutes walk, the international audience screamed and took photographs of them as it does not lose out to the red carpet.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame win high praise in the festival, as internally recognized film magazine Variety gave it 7.6 points, this is the highest point rated on a film for the past 5 days in the festival. The festival opening film Black Swan rated 7.1 points, Norwegian Wood rated 5.7 points and Somewhere rated 7 points.

news from: yule.sohu.com, Ming Pao

Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame worldwide premiere was held on 5 September in Venice, the two male leads Deng Chao and Andy Lau have their own charisma and performing characteristic, no matter it’s facing the media or in the film, using “twin heroes” to describe their trip in Venice is not exaggerating. Deng Chao is the youngest Chinese film representative, as “CHAO” pronunciation is pretty close to Italian “how are you”, so for the past two days, everybody was saying “CHAO” everywhere in Venice.

On the night of the premiere, after the film’s screening, the audience applause at the end of the film, among the Chinese media rating in Venice, Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame can considered to won the highest recognition. Every character surprised the audience, Deng Chao’s character Bei Dong Lai fit Chen Kou-fu’s rating: “It will be unforgettable for the audience when he appeared.” A media from China expressed: “Initially thought that Tony Leung will have a heavy role in the film, but Bei Dong Lai is the pivot of the story development.”

With regards to this, these “twin heroes” completely shown in Venice as Andy and Deng Chao can be considered as friends or foes. Before shooting starts, Tsui Hark wanted to create another “detective dee” — Bei Dong Lai who is also an expert detective, but his way is different from the norm. Although the character was touted to be at loggerhead with detective dee, however when investigating the case, what chemistry could sparks between them? How is he going to report to the imperial court? When compared with the clear identity of detective dee, Deng Chao’s character is hard to guess. In order to bring fresh elements to the film, detective dee is not alone as Deng Chao’s Bei Dong Lai to form a golden partnership, one hard one soft, together both of them push the development of the case in the film.

After the screening, the media have a deep impression in the exciting fighting scenes and beautiful images, the scenes with detective dee and Bei Dong Lai also won praise, the steady detective dee has his slow reasoning, the eager young Bei Dong Lai was fast to reveal the clues. Their collaboration will solve the case.

news from: ent.qq.com