News

Australia-China co-pro 'Guardians of the Tomb' (formerly 'Nest') stars Chinese mega-star Li Bingbing..

The official co-production treaty between China and Australia entered into force in 2008. Since then, despite growing interest in working with the burgeoning film power, only a handful of official co-productions have been made. They include The Dragon Pearl, 33 Postcards.and The Children of the Silk Road (made under a Mou prior to the signing of the treaty)..

However in the past 18 months, things have started to shift. The biggest co-pro to date, Kimble Rendall.s Guardians of the Tomb (formerly Nest), shot on the Gold Coast early last year, and gangster film Dog Fight shot in Victoria last September. Both films are now in post..

Two other projects, Pauline Chan.s My Extraordinary Wedding and Nadia Tass and David Parker.s Tying the Knot,.have been issued provisional approval but are yet to enter production.

China’s Monumental Films will produce with Australia’s Roadman Films and Story Bridge Films.

Screen Australia announced the eighth official China-Australia co-production, At Last, to be written and directed by Yiwei Liu at the on-going Beijing International Film Festival (April 16-23).

The project will be produced by China’s Monumental Films with Australian production outfits Roadman Films and Story Bridge Films.

The story follows a couple from Beijing who find themselves caught in a complex art heist while on holiday in Australia. Jackie Jiao, Todd Fellman, Charles Fan and Vanessa Wu will produce.

Casting is currently underway on the project with production expected to commence in Australia from mid-July. Financiers on the film include Orient Image Entertainment, Gravity Films, Shineland Media, China Lion and Screen Queensland.

Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira said At Last would shoot in Queensland [pictured], providing around 200 jobs and injecting $10.8m into the local economy.

“At Last has come to Queensland as a direct...

Sydney Films is building a slate of 20 China-Australia co-pros.

Screen Australia and private production outfit Sydney Films announced a slew of China-Australian co-production projects at the on-going Beijing International Film Festival (April 16-23).

Described as the eighth official China-Australia co-production, At Last will be directed by Yiwei Liu and produced by China’s Monumental Films with Australian production outfits Roadman Films and Story Bridge Films.

The film tells the story of a couple from Beijing who find themselves caught in a complex art heist while on holiday in Australia. Jackie Jiao, Todd Fellman, Charles Fan and Vanessa Wu will produce.

Casting is currently underway on the project with production expected to commence in Australia from mid-July. Financiers on the film include Orient Image Entertainment, Gravity Films, Shineland Media, China Lion and Screen Queensland.

Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira said At Last would shoot in Queensland, providing around 200 jobs and injecting $10.8m into the local economy.

“At Last has...

Chongqing.

The extraordinary growth of the Chinese film industry has seen it emerge as a global player. The Chinese industry is looking abroad to futher its filmmaking expertise and help bring its films to an international audience. In If's first China Report, Jackie Keast examines what this means for Australia. As Hollywood and film industries across the world enthusiastically court the Chinese market, can we compete?

The film industry in China is booming. Within just a few years, China has become the world.s second largest market, predicted to eclipse the Us in less than five years..

By 2015, annual ticket sales had reached 44 billion yuan, or $USD6.78 billion — a growth of 48.7 per cent from 2014..

While 2016 saw a slowdown, annual receipts nevertheless tallied 45.7 billion yuan by year.s end.

In 2016, 27 new screens opened across China each day, bringing the country.s total close to 40,000..

Chinese real estate and entertainment conglomerate Wanda...

Re-teaming with Darclight, the company behind her most recent movie Zhongkui: Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal, Bingbing Li will next head for The Nest. She's producing and will star in the arachnophobic sci-fi thriller. Kimble Rendall (Second-Unit on the Matrix sequels, I, Robot and Killer Elite) is directing.The plot involves a team of scientists who, in order to get to the "discovery of the century", must negotiate a labyrinth of carnivorous spiders. There's always bloody something, isn't there?It's a Chinese-Australian co-production: the fourth to come about through an arrangement between Screen Australia and the China Film Co-Production Corporation since 2006. It's being touted as the biggest-budget project to come out of that deal so far, although the number isn't being specified. Given that the previous three co-productions - Children Of The Silk Road, The Dragon Pearl and 33 Postcards - amount to a combined total budget of about $60m,...

Birdman, Fury and Leviathan among main competition titles; Roland Joffé to preside over main jury.

Alejandro G Ińárritu, Yimou Zhang, Mike Leigh and Jean-Marc Vallée are among the directors with films screening in competition at the 22nd Camerimage (Nov 15-22), the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.

The main competition at the festival, held in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, comprises:

Alejandro G Ińárritu’s Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance); USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki

Yimou Zhang’s Coming Home (Gui lai); China, 2014; Cinematographer: Zhao Xiaoding

Richard Raymond’s Desert Dancer; UK, 2014; Cinematographer: Carlos Catalán Alucha

Lech J. Majewski’s Field of Dogs - Onirica (Onirica - Psie pole); Poland, 2014; Cinematographers: Paweł Tybora and Lech J. Majewski

Krzysztof Zanussi’s Foreign Body (Obce cialo); Poland, Italy, Russia, 2014; Cinematographer: Piotr Niemyjski

David Ayer’s Fury; USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Roman Vasyanov

Tate Taylor’s Get on Up; USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Stephen Goldblatt

Łukasz Palkowski’s Gods (Bogowie); Poland, 2014; Cinematographer:...

Polish film festival sets competition juries; Roland Joffe to preside over main competition.

Camerimage (Nov 15-22), the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, has set an impressive roster of jurors for its various competition categories.

The Killing Fields director Roland Joffe will preside over the main competition jury, which incldues cinematographers Christian Berger and Manuel Alberto Claro.

Caleb Deschanel has been appointed president of the Polish Films Competition.

The full list of jurors is below.

Main Competition

Roland Joffé – Jury President (director, producer; The Killing Fields, The Mission, Vatel)

Christian Berger (cinematographer; The Piano Teacher, Hidden, The White Ribbon)

Ryszard Bugajski (director, screenwriter; Interrogation, General Nil, The Closed Circuit)

Ryszard Horowitz (photographer)

David Gropman (cinematographer; The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, Life of Pi)

Arthur Reinhart (cinematographer, producer; Crows, Tristan + Isolde, Venice)

Oliver Stapleton (cinematographer; The Cider House Rules, Pay It Forward, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark)

Manuel Alberto Claro (cinematographer; Reconstruction, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac...

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The Young and Prodigious Spivet will be the opening film at this year’s Filmfest München (June 27-July 5) after Jeunet previously kicked off the festival in Munich in 2001 with Amelie From Montmartre.

Special highlights at what will be Diana Iljine’s fourth outing as festival director include the first ever complete retrospective dedicated to the veteran Us director Walter Hill, a gala evening in honour of the Oscar-winning producer Arthur Cohn with a screening of The Children Of Huang Shi, and a tribute to the producer-director-cinematographer Willy Bogner.

The Walter Hill retrospective will range from his 1975 debut Hard Times, starring Charles Bronson and James Coburn, through such classics as The Long Riders and The Warriors and two films made for Us television - the pilot Deadwood and the Western epic Broken Trail - to his 2012 film Bullet To The Head, with Sylvester Stallone and Christian Slater.

World premieres

Munich will also be hosting a number...

Director Craig Monahan.s first film in 10 years is an intelligent and satisfying drama.

That.s according to the first reviews for Healing, which is screening at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Don Hany, Hugo Weaving, Xavier Samuel and Anthony Hayes star in the film scripted by Monahan (who last directed Peaches in 2004) and Alison Nisselle, inspired by a real-life alliance between the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary and Prisons Victoria.

.A group of conflicted men, prisoners and inmates discover the majesty of great birds . and through them, the cleansing power of redemption . in the deeply felt outdoor drama Healing,. said Variety's Eddie Cockrell.

.The first film in a decade from director and co-writer Craig Monahan, whose 1998 psychological thriller The Interview remains an uncommonly smart genre piece, this equally intelligent and satisfying item will prove therapeutic to distribs on the hunt for quality fare..

Hany plays Viktor, a crim of Iranian...

Terry O'Quinn as Gavin Doran in "666 Park Avenue" (ABC/Andrew Eccles)

ABC‘s slate of new shows for fall has a strange flavor to it, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The network has about as many new shows as returning ones (if you count all the midseasons), and a good percentage of the returning offerings are a year old or less, making this look a bit like a rebuilding year.

Not only is it a rebuilding year, but it’s the year of bringing back every actor and actress who ever had a decent run on a show before. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a network’s new season slate that was so crammed with people returning from something else. If you can’t make it good, I suppose, make sure viewers recognize the faces.

It’s tricky to get a solid feel...

When you think quality, big-budget period dramas, you think … Wong Jing? Okay, maybe not so much. But the prolific director/producer/writer/purveyor of lowbrow comedies, quickie hit-movie facsimiles, and other films of questionable quality, will be directing an epic gangster movie called “Once Upon A Time In Shanghai” with none other than Chow Yun-Fat in the lead. Chow would star as Du Yuesheng, a gangster said to have “close ties” to Nationalist Party head honcho Chiang Kai-shek and his Kmt government during the roaring 1920s and ‘30s Shanghai, before that whole World War II phase made a mess out of everything. “Infernal Affairs” director Andrew Lau will produce the film, which will also co-star Sammo Hung. Chow has been spending a lot of time in China’s past lately. His last few films include the period gangster movie “Let the Bullets Fly”, set in the 1920s; “Shanghai”, set in...

The Flowers of War Trailer. Yimou Zhang‘s The Flowers of War (2011) international movie trailer stars Christian Bale and Shigeo Kobayashi. The Flowers of War‘s plot synopsis: Based on a historical novel by Yan Geling, and shot with a mixture of Chinese and English dialogue (and some Japanese), the film has Bale playing “John Haufman, a salty mortician who apparently has come to town to bury the priest of a cathedral in Nanking. The cathedral also has a school for girls, and with war waging all around and the priest dead, John dons the priests’ vestments and works out a temporary reprieve from the rampaging Japanese soldiers…’The Flowers Of War’ focuses on the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, when thousands of inhabitants of the then-capital Nanjing were murdered by invading Japanese troops.”

Not bad. It will remind the viewer of The Children of Huang Shi (reviewed here: The Children of Huang Shi...

Alex Lloyd and Pigram Brothers, Jed Kurzel, David Hirschfelder, David McCormack and The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor are among the nominees for the 2011 Screen Music Awards.

The 2011 Screen Music Awards are jointly presented by Apra (Australiasian Performing Rights Association) and Agsc (Australian Guild of Screen Composers).

In the category of the feature film score of the year, Alex Lloyd and Alan and Stephen Pigram are nominated for Mad Bastards alongside Jed Kurzel of rock band the Mess Hall, and brother of director Justin Kurzel is nominated for Snowtown. Past winner David Hirschfelder (Children of the Silk Road) is nominated for The Legend of the Guardians while Burkhard Dallwitz is nominated for The Way Back.

Dallwitz is also nominated for Underbelly Files: tell them Lucifer was here in the Best music for a mini-series or telemovie alongside Guy Gross for East West 101, Bryony Marks for Cloudstreet and...

The film adaptation of Chinese author Qiu Xiaolong’s successful Inspector Chen novel series (not to be confused with the Detective Inspector Chen series by Liz Williams) will see Chief Inspector Chen come to life across seven films.

Producers Wieland Schulz-Keil (Neofilm, Berlin), Cordula Paetzel (Schmidt & Paetzel Fernsehfilme, Berlin) and Marian Macgowan (Macgowan Films, Sydney) acquired the rights to all seven novels, written in English and set in Shanghai, and are in negotiations with Chinese distribution, a production house and with international sales agents.

Wieland Schulz-Keil was producer on Children of the Silk Road (2008) and executive producer on The Cat’s Meow (2001). Marian Macgowan produced South Solitary (2010), Blessed (2009) and Two Hands (1999).

The co-production comes on the back of last year’s Australia China Screen Alliance, aimed to facilitate co-productions between the two countries. Other recent Australian-Chinese co-productions include 33 Postcards starring Guy Pearce and directed by Pauline Chan and The Dragon Pearl...

Craig here with another Take Three.

Today: Radha Mitchell

Two Melindas in one for Woody Allen, a video game avatar made flesh in Silent Hill and a sensual magazine intern in High Art aside (plus central roles in The Waiting City, The Children of Huang Shi and Visitors), Radha Mitchell has peppered her career with solid, dependable and intriguing supporting roles. The leads may be few and far between, but Mitchell has delivered quality input on film and television for the last two decades. She's a genre girl at heart - an amiable trait about this Australian character actress.

Take One: Don't croc the boat, baby

Croc horror flick Rogue (2007) came out without much fanfare last year (limited Us theatrical release, DVD premiere in the UK) - a shame as it was one of the more enjoyable monster movies of recent times. Essentially Lake Placid with a shade more atmosphere (but,...

Today's trailer is for an indie that has been on hold for quite a few years. Shake Hands with the Devil first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival way back in 2007. In fact, director Roger Spottiswoode actually directed another film (The Children of Huang Shi) while waiting for this to be released. Regent Releasing is finally bringing Shake Hands with the Devil to theaters in 2010 and has debuted a trailer for it on Apple. I'm featuring it for a few reasons. First, while some of the dialogue looks rough, the story looks incredible. Second, the cinematography and locations look gorgeous as well. It stars Roy Dupuis and Deborah Unger. Watch the trailer for Roger Spottiswoode's Shake Hands with the Devil: [flv:http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/shakehandswiththedevil-trailer.flv http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/shakehandswiththedevil-trailer.jpg 598 248] You can also watch the Shake Hands with the Devil trailer in High Definition on Apple The story follows Emma, a journalist, as well as the personal journey...

Update: It has just been reported that Jonathan Rhys Meyers will quit The Tudors, and more about his upcoming filming of From Paris With Love. [ read more (http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/hotshot-rhys-meyers-quits-the-tudors-1485260.html) ] He can play King, rocker, spy... You name it, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers can! As one of our favorite actors, we're putting him in the spotlight- with a list of upcoming films and his recent movie, The Children of Huang Shi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0889588/)! - - - Latest Project: Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992789.html?categoryid=13 cs=1)has recently announced that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is set to star alongside John Travolta in an upcoming thriller directed by Pierre Morel called From Paris With Love (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179034/). The films plot concerns a young embassy worker and an American secret agent who cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris. [ read more (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992789.html?categoryid=13 cs=1) ] Screen Daily (http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?...

Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992789.html?categoryid=13 cs=1)has recently announced that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is set to star alongside John Travolta in an upcoming thriller directed by Pierre Morel called From Paris With Love (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179034/). The films plot concerns a young embassy worker and an American secret agent who cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris. [ read more (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992789.html?categoryid=13 cs=1) ] Screen Daily (http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=41014 Category) also reports producers EuropaCorp are to begin shooting on From Paris With Love: EuropaCorp has announced the start of principal photography on the $55m (Euros 38m) From Paris With Love, starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Director Pierre Morel began filming Monday near Annecy and will carry on to Paris and its environs for a total 12-week shoot. The film is based on an original idea from EuropaCorp principal Luc Besson,...

Superhero movie Hancock has knocked Kung Fu Panda off the Australian box office top spot. Will Smith's action adventure took nearly twice as much as the DreamWorks animated comedy to land the number one spot. Elsewhere, Steve Carell's comedy vehicle Get Smart fell to third, while The Children Of Huang Shi climbed to number nine. The top ten in full: 1. (-) Hancock - $$7,280,548

2. (1) Kung Fu Panda - $$3,828,577

3. (2) (more)...

Too many biopics simplify their subjects' lives down to the point where it seems like great people never suffer through false starts: From childhood on, they aim themselves, arrow-like, at their goals. Which makes for good mythmaking, but a lousy portrayal of real life. The Children Of Huang Shi, a portrait of British journalist George Hogg, is romanticized in some respects, with enough lit-fic gloss that it resembles a respectable film adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel. But at least it gets across the way Hogg stumbled into his life's work unintentionally: Even great lives don't always work out as intended. Opening in 1937 with the Japanese occupation of China, Huang Shi follows Hogg (played with bristling energy by The Tudors star Jonathan Rhys Meyers) as he cockily infiltrates a dangerous contested area, eager to scoop his competition. When he witnesses a mass execution of Chinese civilians—part of the...

NEW YORK -- Radha Mitchell has joined Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas in Mimi Leder's crime thriller The Code

Mitchell plays a temptress whose romantic liaison with a thief (Banderas) threatens to come between him and his partner in crime, her godfather (Freeman).

The feature is a co-production between Nu Image/Millennium Films, Revelations Entertainment, Equity Pictures and First Look Studios, with financing provided by Grosvenor Park.

The film begins shooting later this month in New York, followed by Nu Image's Nu Boyana Film Center in Bulgaria. The project was developed in-house at Revelations by Tracy Mercer and brought to Millennium. Ted Humphrey and Reuben Leder wrote the screenplay.

Mitchell's credits include Melinda and Melinda, Rogue and The Children of Huang Shi....

NEW YORK -- Sony Pictures Classics has picked up all North American rights to The Children of Huang Shi, a fact-based war drama filmed in China starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh.

Roger Spottiswoode's feature, which wrapped three months of shooting Friday in Shanghai, tells the story of a British reporter (Rhys Meyers) in China during the country's invasion by Japan in 1937. He rescues 60 war orphans by leading them on a thousand-mile journey to a village near the end of China's Great Wall with the help of a local political leader (Chow), an aristocrat (Yeoh) and the nurse he falls in love with (Mitchell).

Children was written by James MacManus and Jane Hawksley. The film is tentatively set for release in the fourth quarter.

Arthur Cohn and Wieland Schulz-Keil produced the film with Peter Loehr of Beijing's Ming Prods., Jonathan Shteinman of Sydney's Bluewater Pictures and Martin Hagemann of Berlin's Zero Fiction.