Stan Lee, Ridley Scott to work on Chinese co-productions
TAIPEI: Taiwan entertainment giant, Hualien Media International, recently announced that they would work with superhero guru Stan Lee and Hollywood filmmaker Ridley Scott on two upcoming blockbusters.
The first project of Hualien's co-production plan is ‘ Arch Alien', an original new creation by Stan Lee, the man who was the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, the franchise behind Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the X-Men and many others.
George Hsieh, founder and executive producer of Hualien, said that the company will finance and co-produce the film and announced Ralph Hemecker as the director and William J. MacDonald, who wrote the HBO dramatic series ‘ Rome', as the screen writer. Hemecker is known as the director of the popular American TV series, ‘ Once Upon A Time' and ‘ The Flash'. Principal photography for the film is set to start in June or July with filming taking place in the United States and Guangzhou, China.
The second project announced is ‘ World Breaker', which will be produced by Ridley Scott, the legendary director of ‘ Alien', ‘ Gladiator' and the most recent film, ‘ The Martian'. The new emerging director William Eubank, who directed ‘ Love' and ‘ The Signal', will helm and write the new Middle Ages epic which will have feature battles on a grand scale that can best those seen in ‘ 300' and ‘ The Lord of Rings' franchise, boasted the producers. Xinjiang's government also expects that the film can help boost local tourism.
“I hope we can make the world see that Xinjiang is a better place for shooting fantasy movies than New Zealand and Scotland. Our goal is to make films that live up to Hollywood standards,” George Hsieh said.
The film will be shot in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Beijing from September this year and will be produced by Hualien and Automatik. The estimated release date is set for the end of 2017, said Ti Chou, the executive producer at the press conference. Despite being unable to unveil the cast, he revealed that the leading cast members will be a top Hollywood actor and a top Chinese actress.
Hsieh added that they would not only produce the two films but also make a series of merchandise, including a comic book and theme park. Taiwanbased Hualien owns one third of the theatres in Taiwan. The most recent film it produced was ‘ Our Times', which
has become the highest grossing Taiwan film worldwide. Tokyo's Narita airport ahead of his departure. “I caused a lot of worries but now I can move forward and get down to new work and acting,” the Oscarnominated actor said.
“I want to start over by remotivating myself,” he added.
The 56-year- old said he would resume his role in ‘ The King and I' on Mar 17.
Last year, he became the first Japanese actor to be nominated for a Tony Award following his run in the musical.
The actor survived two bouts of leukaemia in 1989 and 1994.