The grandson of a famous Chinese kung fu master is suing the producers and distributors of Jet Li's latest film, Fearless, for defaming his illustrious ancestor, Chinese state media have said.
The movie portrays Huo Yuanjia, born in 1868 and one of China's most accomplished martial arts heroes, but takes too much artistic licence, his grandson charges, Xinhua news agency said.
Huo Shoujin, Huo Yuanjia's only surviving grandson on the Chinese mainland, said the film contains "fabrications of his grandfather's life and character and it besmirches his reputation," according to Xinhua.
Huo is asking for an end to the worldwide release of the film and a written public apology, Xinhua said. He filed a lawsuit at the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing on Tuesday, according to the agency.
The defendants include Beijing Film Studio under the China Film Group Corporation, the producer of the film, and Beijing-based Anle Film Company, the distributor, Xinhua said.
Cyrus Man, marketing executive at Hong Kong-based distributor Edko Films, which has also been sued according to Hong Kong media, said the family so far had not contacted his firm.
"When we first made the movie, we hoped to bring a message to today's youth about self-strengthening and encourage them to never give up," he said, declining to comment specifically on the court case.
"We mentioned at the end of the film it's a fictitious story."
Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes and Sienna Miller are set to appear in the movie version of the best selling novel Stardust, the trade magazine Variety reported Tuesday.
The movie, which also stars Charlie Cox, is to be filmed in Iceland and Britain starting in April by director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake).
The movie, based on a fantasy novel Neil Gaiman, tell the story of a young man that travels to an enchanted world searching for a shooting star in order to win the heart of the woman he loves.
The last time John Travolta appeared in a musical it was alongside Olivia Newton John as the smooth-operating matinee idol Danny in Grease, the most successful movie musical of all time.
Twenty-eight years later, the Hollywood star is going back to his toe-tapping roots to take on the role of Edna Turnblad in a new film version of Hairspray.
Due for release next year, the film will star Travolta in a role immortalised in the original film by the late transvestite actor Divine.
Edna is the downtrodden mother of the film's heroine, aspiring dancer Tracy Turnblad, who has yet to be cast. The producers of the film say they are looking for a newcomer to play the role. But Queen Latifah, who was nominated for a golden globe and oscar for her role in the musical Chicago, has been chosen to play the civil rights activist and dance show host Motormouth Maybelle.
"It's long been a desire of ours to work with John Travolta and to have the opportunity to produce his return to movie musicals after three decades," said producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron in a statement.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located