During last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Chinese film studio Huayi Brothers announced that they’re making “Tai Chi 0” with Jet Li in the lead and Stephen Fung in the director’s chair.

Since then, all future announcements regarding “Tai Chi 0” have NOT mentioned Li’s involvement. He is currently listed as a producer on IMDB, but not as a cast member.

Jet Li is NOT involved with Stephen Fung’s “Tai Chi 0.” Li had brought the project to Huayi Brothers, but dropped out after they disagreed about the film's vision.

Huayi Brothers liked the idea of a Tai Chi movie, so they hired Stephen Fung to further develop it. Li and Fung have never worked together on “Tai Chi 0.” Apparently, the two visions of the film are very different even though both involved the Tai Chi style.

So there you have it. Li initiated the project, but dropped out over creative differences. Fung entered afterwards and developed it into its current form, which includes a steampunk element.

Li’s initial involvement explains his producer credit on IMDB.

Article written by Senh Duong

Source: movieswithbutter.com

Jackie Chan celebrated his 58th birthday with 500 guests, together with his wife Joan Lin and son Jaycee Chan at a party held in his Sai Kung film studio in Hong Kong.
At the birthday party, Jackie share his joy with friends including Sally Yeh, Liu Chia-Chang, Daniel Wu, Leo Ku, Willie Chan, Alex Law, Mabel Cheung, Stephen Fung, Andrew Lau, Hu Xia, Ko Chen-Tung and others.

Jaycee had reportedly rushed back to attend the party and gave his father the tickets of his new movie "Double Trouble", which will be released in Beijing and Taiwan, as his birthday gift.

Jackie also showed his appreciation for his fans on Weibo, "Saw the birthday wishes from so many friends, thank you everyone, I love you all."

"I will return your wishes with the best movies, wait for my "Chinese Zodiac". I can't believe I would receive hundred thousands of birthday wishes. I resend there blessings to all mankind," the Kung Fu star added.

Source: Yahoo.com

Director Stephen Fung won a lot of love for his 2005 effort House Of Fury, a highly entertaining effort that seemed to cement the Hong Kong actor-turned-director's career shift. Things were looking up for Fung on the directing front. And then he became collateral damage in the Edison Chen sex scandal.

Chen was cast as the male lead in Fung's House Of Fury follow up, Jump, when the scandal hit. The reaction to explicit sex photos leaked from Chen's personal computer was so severe that Fung had no choice but to shut down production, recast Chen's part and start all over again. That Jump was finished at all is a minor miracle but the issue meant a four year gap between pictures for Fung and a definite taint clung to the picture. Zip forward another three years and Fung is finally in post production on his next project, the big budget mainland project Tai Chi 0.

A martial arts picture with definite steampunk overtones, Tai Chi 0 looks to be a return to form for Fung with the director going for the sort of high energy stylistic mashup that is a surprising rarity in Chinese language film. For years now Pang Ho Cheung has been the defacto voice of the young generation simply because there hasn't been much of anyone else playing in that field in any sort of meaningful fashion. Hopefully Tai Chi 0 will restore Fung to a growing class of directors - Wong Ching Po and Wuershan being the other major names - with the goods and the backing to shake things up a bit.

Source(s): news article from twitchfilm.com, video from Diversion Pictures Official Youtube Channel

Just catching up on some (newish) news...

Stephen Fung & Daniel Wu established Diversion Pictures with Huayi Brothers Backing



Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung have established an independent company in partnership called, 'Diversion Pictures'. One of China's biggest entertainment group, 'Huayi Brothers' will assist them over a 5 year contract.

Stephen Fung will front as the CEO and Daniel Wu, the chairman of Diversion Pictures. Apart from leading the company, both still plan to write, act and direct in movies. The newly established company is aimed towards the young audience segment with a focus on modern and artistic vision. The first featured film is set to star Jet Li titled, "Tai-Chi", and shooting will commence in June.

Source: Jpopasia.com


( MORE NEWS UNDER THE CUT )


MORE IMAGES @ Sina.com.cn (Press Conference), Sina.com.cn (On Set)

生日快樂 !!
Today (9th August) is Stephen's 37th birthday - it is also the day the new Stephen Fung Online is launched! Ok, ok So I know it's not all totally up yet - but I'm working on it!

It is Tuesday in China so I'm posting this now~