A Hong Kong distributor has withdrawn a Chinese-made film from Taiwan's annual Golden Horse Film Festival, a Taiwanese official said on Tuesday, apparently under pressure from mainland officials.
A festival official said he was informed by the Hong Kong office of film distributor Fortissimo that Chinese authorities did not want the film The Go Master (吳清源) to be shown at the event.
Chang Chen (張震), who plays the strategy game master in the film, was nominated last month for best actor at the festival and was considered a front-runner for the award.
PHOTOS: AP
Beijing routinely bans Chinese films from the Taiwan-hosted Mandarin-language movie festival because of its long-standing political feud with the island.
Organizers and government officials officially launched Tuesday in Taipei the final 10-day countdown to the 2006 Taipei TV and Film Festival (TTF), the largest TV and film festival in Asia.
The annual festival, which will be from Thursday through next Saturday, includes three major events — the Taipei International TV, Film and Digital Contents Exhibition (TFCOM), the Taipei International Digital TV, Broadcasting and Film Forum and the Taiwan Film and TV Project Promotion.
"In only its third year, the festival has surpassed three major TV festivals in China and established a leading position in Asia, " said Lai Kuo-chou (賴國洲), chairman and CEO of Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV), the main organizer.
There will be more than 650 booths set up by 75 companies from 10 countries at the TFCOM, to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center, Lai said.
Licensing deals signed this year are expected to surpass NT$157.5 million, up from last year's US$3.5 million, according to Government Information Office Minister Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦).
The festival has been integrated by the GIO with the Golden Horse Awards and the Golden Bell Awards, into the Taiwan International Film and TV Expo, which runs Nov. 8 through Nov. 25.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie said she accepted a role in the movie, A Mighty Heart, now shooting in western Indian city Mumbai, because she felt there should be dialogue between different cultures and faiths, news reports said.
"We are all from different backgrounds, even people on the panel and characters in the film," which is based on the life of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Jolie told news agency IANS.
Jolie, who is playing Mariane Pearl, Daniel's wife in the film, flew into the city last week after over a month of shooting in Pune city, about 150km south-east of western Maharashtra state's capital Mumbai, where her bodyguards hogged the limelight by allegedly threatening and manhandling press photographers.
The actress and her partner Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and their three children have been under intense media scrutiny ever since they landed in India early last month.
The film A Mighty Heart is based on the book written by Mariane, deals with her husband who worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was abducted and killed in Pakistan four years ago.
Oscar-winning actor-director Warren Beatty will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at next year's Golden Globes, organizers announced Wednesday.
Beatty, 69, will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award in recognition of a glittering movie career that has seen him direct or star in several classics including Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, Reds and Heaven Can Wait.
Previous winners of the award, which is decided by a vote of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), include Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson.
Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson has agreed to .a deal to make a film about his life, the movie industry daily Variety reported Wednesday.
Wilson, the lead songwriter of the legendary California-based 1960s supergroup, has signed an agreement with producer Mark Gordon for a biopic, according to Variety.
"I love the idea of there being a movie on my life, and I can't wait to see the script," Wilson was quoted by Variety as saying.
Wilson was responsible for some of the seminal songs of American rock music in the 1960s, including Surfin' USA, Good Vibrations and Help Me Rhonda. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds is regularly cited as one of the most influential American albums ever.
Wilson had a turbulent life. Deaf in one ear and bullied by an abusive father, he eventually suffered from depression, drug addiction and a nervous breakdown.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
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