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Actress Cecilia Cheung, is a princess, but not a real one. PHOTOS: AP

The latest film by renowned director Chen Kaige (陳凱歌) premiered throughout China on Wednesday with the US$42 million kung fu blockbuster the biggest-budgeted film in the nation's cinematic history.

The Promise, starring South Korean heartthrob Jang Dung-Kun, Japan's Hiroyuki Sanada and Hong Kong stars Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), opened at Chinese cinemas after a star-studded premiere Monday night.

Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jack Black are slated to star in the romantic comedy Holiday to be filmed early next year, the Hollywood magazine Variety said.

Law, most recently seen in The Aviator, and Diaz, the goofy star of There's Something About Mary, will play a couple who meet while on vacation in Britain.

Titanic heroine Kate Winslet plays a British woman who befriends them, and Black, The School of Rock star -- and now appearing in King Kong -- turns the group into a romantic foursome.

Jude Law may jump into bed with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jack Black. PHOTO: AP

Nancy Meyers will direct the film for Columbia.

Paramount film studios, part of Viacom, has purchased DreamWorks, makers of Shrek and Madagascar for US$1.6 billion dollars in cash, the company said Sunday.

DreamWorks SKG, which created successful computer animated features, was also sought after by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric.

"In nine months we were never able to get an agreement with GE," said David Geffen, one of the founders of DreamWorks, during a telephone conference call.

The final deal gives Paramount access to 59 films in DreamWorks' library, including Gladiator, American Beauty, War of the Worlds, Saving Private Ryan, and Catch Me if You Can.

Paramount plans to sell off the catalogue, according to the company, for somewhere between US$850 million and US$1 billion, said Brad Grey, without revealing the names of possible buyers.

A man pleaded guilty to unlawfully posting a copy of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith on the Internet the night before the film appeared in theaters.

Marc Hoaglin entered his plea on Tuesday to one count of uploading a work being prepared for commercial distribution, the US attorney's office said in a statement.

The illegal posting violated the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which made uploading a movie before its DVD release a federal felony.

Hoaglin, 36, was the second person in the nation convicted under the law, according to the US attorney's office. He faces up to three years in prison at sentencing March 6.

Hoaglin told the judge he obtained a prerelease copy of the Star Wars film from a co-worker in May. The copy had been stolen a few days earlier from a post-production company hired by Lucasfilm Ltd to put finishing touches on the film, prosecutors said.

The son of famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, defying opposition from his father, will make his directorial debut next year with a film on the Earthsea fantasy novels by US writer Ursula Le Guin.

Goro Miyazaki, a 38-year-old former construction consultant, is directing the animation film for July next year release, according to Studio Ghibli, which has released his father's works.

"It may sound a bit abrupt but let me say this first -- my father Hayao Miyazaki was against my directing Tales From Earthsea," his eldest son said without delving into the reasons.

"I realized I have undeniable affection for animation, which I had long pretended not to notice in my mind due partly to relations with my father," he wrote on the Ghibli Web site.

He said he had decided to take up his father's profession in part because he was drawn to the Le Guin stories about a boy who turns into the wizard Ged.

The Earthsea tales were published from 1968 and were compared decades later to J.K. Rowling's smash-hit Harry Potter series.

Irish heartthrob Colin Farrell has checked himself into an undisclosed rehab center to be treated for exhaustion and dependency on prescription medication, his publicist announced Tuesday.

The medication was prescribed for treating a back injury, according to a statement. "We ask that the press respect the privacy of Mr. Farrell and his family," publicist Danica Smith said.

Farrell stars in the upcoming epic A New World and in the upcoming widescreen version of the 1980s TV favorite Miami Vice that hits screens early next year.

Leonardo DiCaprio is to film his next thriller The Blood Diamond in South Africa, according to the Tuesday issue of Variety.

The subtropical coast of South Africa's southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province will stand in for the west African state of Sierra Leone in the movie, shooting for which is scheduled to start Feb. 4, the report said.

The movie is set during a civil war in Sierra Leone in which DiCaprio plays a smuggler of "blood diamonds" -- also known as "conflict diamonds" -- which are the precious stones used to finance rebellions, privateers and terrorists.

Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai) will direct the film, co-starring Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou.
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