Taiwan-based Equinox Film and New Zealand Silver Screen Films on Monday announced a plan to co-produce the classic Chinese mythical tale Lady White Snake (
The two companies signed the contract in Taipei on Monday, announcing the joint venture for the US$40 million project. Each side is responsible for raising 50 percent of the funds for the movie. If it proceeds as planned, the project will be the largest-budget movie in Taiwan's filmmaking history.
"We are very excited about this project. This joint venture has set up a framework for New Zealand and Taiwan filmmaking and we hope that this will help us move into a higher level of producing higher quality films," Lewis Holden, deputy minister of New Zealand's Ministry of Economic Development, said on Monday in Wellington through a video conference held in Taipei.
PHOTO: CHEN YI-CHUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
"We are pleased to be involved in this project," said Don Reynolds, CEO of Silver Screen Films. "When I read the story of Lady White Snake I was much intrigued and liked the story so much. For me, it's a good love story with well-developed characters," Reynolds said at the video conference.
The project was initiated two years ago by Richard Hou (
Over the past two years, Hou took the script to Hollywood and Japanese studios. "In the end, we decided to work with Silver Screen Films because it had the offer that we thought most beneficial for Taiwan's film industry as a whole," Hou said.
According to the contract, apart from co-producing the film with Equinox, Silver Screen Films' post-production wing Oktobor will also help Dragon Digital, its post-production counterpart in Taiwan, to set up a production line for special effects work and 3D animation.
The benefit for New Zealand is that the project will follow the precedents of The Last Samurai and the Lord of the Rings movies and have the film shot entirely in New Zealand.
"We will re-create the Hangzhou West Lake and the Gold Mountain Temple in the story of the Lady White Snake in New Zealand," Hou said.
Lady White Snake will be the first English-language film adaptation of the legend. The tale is about a white snake fairy transforming herself into a beautiful woman who then falls in love with a young scholar. But the romance is forbidden by the human world and also hindered by a malicious Buddhist monk.
The first film adaptation of the story was the Japanese-language Madame White Snake (1956) by director Shiro Toyoda. In 1962, there was Mandarin Hong Kong movie of a similar story. The most recent adaptation has been Hong Kong director Tsui Hark's (
Because the movie will be in English, Reynolds said the cast would have to be internationally known actors.
According to Hou, the first candidate for the monk Fa-hai (
Shooting is scheduled to start in 2006, at the latest.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS