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[Reel News]

Chinese movie about an Olympic sprinter who escaped Japanese rule to take part in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics will be released in China next month, a producer said yesterday.

Wang Zhebin (王浙濱) said the movie, called One Man’s Olympics in Chinese, will open on May 18 and 400 to 500 prints will be issued. China has more than 3,400 movie screens.

The release comes a few months ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

One Man’s Olympics is about sprinter Liu Changchun (劉長春), who escaped from Japanese-ruled Manchuria in northeastern China to represent his country in the Los Angeles Olympics.

Wang said the movie has finished shooting and is currently in post-production.

She said filmmakers have invited Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan (成龍), Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) and Singapore’s Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) to record the movie’s theme song.

Party on, Mike Myers. The star of the Wayne’s World, Austin Powers and Shrek films will host the 2008 MTV Movie Awards.

The 17th annual show will air live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, on June 1.

The celeb-filled event is the network’s irreverent nod to the typical awards shows. Categories for Golden Popcorn trophies include best kiss, best villain and best comedic performance.

Nominees will be announced next month.

Myers, star of the upcoming film The Love Guru, previously hosted the show in 1997.

“Mike Myers blew us away last time he hosted the MTV Movie Awards with his Lord of the Dance and over-the-top musical productions,’’ Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music, Logo and Films Group, said in a statement Wednesday.

“He keeps creating iconic film characters that have been etched in the minds of MTV’s audiences forever,” Toffler said. “The Love Guru is sure to spur yet another cultural movement, so we’re elated to have Mike back as our host.’’ Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) is executive producer of the show.

“Hosting the MTV Movie Awards is like a party, but without having to do beer runs in your mom’s minivan; we do beer runs in Will Smith’s four-story motorhome,’’ Myers, 44, said in a statement.

Disney studio has released details about its slate of upcoming animated movies — all of which will be made in digital 3-D.

The entertainment company announced that it was moving to 3-D animated movies last month. The move will start this November with Bolt, about an ordinary dog who believes he has superhero powers.

John Travolta is lined up to voice the Bolt character while Miley Cyrus will play the dog’s young owner Penny.

Bolt will be followed in May next year by Up, about a 78-year-old adventurer and his young sidekick, while Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will be re-released in 3-D from October and February next year, followed by the debut of Toy Story 3 in June 2010.

Other movies on the roster include Rapunzel, slated for December, 2010; Newt, a summer 2011 film about a lizard cooling his heels in a community college science lab; The Bear and the Bow, featuring the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson, slated for Christmas 2011; and Cars 2, set for release in 2012.

Also set for release in 2012 is King of the Elves, a movie about elves and trolls who live in modern-day Mississippi.

Singapore’s censors have banned four documentary films from a movie festival for portrayals of terrorism, depicting gay Muslims, and scenes of sado-masochism, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Two movies Arabs and Terrorism and David the Tolhildan, were “disallowed on account of their sympathetic portrayal of organizations deemed terrorist organizations by many countries,” Amy Chua, chairman of the Board of Film Censors, told the pro-government Straits Times.

“Films which portray terrorist organizations in a positive light by lending support and voice to justify their cause through violence are disallowed under the film classification guidelines,” said Chua.

The four films were among 200 submitted for classification by organizers of the Singapore International Film Festival, which started on Friday last week and and ends Monday.

The event Web site www.filmfest.org.sg describes Arabs and Terrorism as a series of interviews with academics, US policymakers and Middle Eastern political factions and their conflicting views of terrorism.

David the Tolhildan depicts the life of Swiss national David Rouiller who leaves home to join the militant Kurdish Workers’ Party, while In a Jihad for Love includes interviews with gay Muslims.

Bakushi, the fourth film that was banned, is a documentary on the practice of kinbaku, a Japanese form of sexual bondage.
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