Star Wars: Rogue One

[GeneChing]

shut. up. :cool:


Star Wars: Episode 8 Wants To Cast Hong Kong Action Star As A Jedi (http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Star-Wars-Episode-8-Wants-Cast-Hong-Kong-Action-Star-Jedi-72416.html)
By Joseph Baxter 23 hours ago

http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/72416/Donnie_Yen_72416.jpg

By the time of the anticipated launch of the Star Wars sequel trilogy this December with Episode VII: The Force Awakens, we will have gotten to either love or hate a slew of new primary characters. However, rumors are circulating that the middle act might add some Force-powered chop-socky with the exciting addition of Hong Kong action star, Donnie Yen.

A Hong Kong tabloid called Apple Daily has stoked the rumor fires with their report claiming that Donnie Yen, one of the most bankable stars in the lucrative China film market, has landed a role in the yet-to-be-titled Episode VIII, directed by Rian Johnson. As the sparse details of the report imply, Yen would prospectively play a Jedi, who, by some fateful set of circumstances, becomes a friend to Harrison Ford’s Han Solo in the battle against the neo-Imperial organization known as The First Order. The report goes so far to claim that the actor leaves for London early next month to begin shooting said role.

This Jedi role could actually entail more than just a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. The report implies that Yen beat out several notable peer candidates; some of whom have actually established themselves in the U.S., such as Jet Li, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung, Chang Chen, Daniel Wu and Wang Leehom. Apropos to such a casting call, the unnamed Jedi role will apparently see the actor embroiled in immense amounts of actions shots. However, it seems that this pool was whittled down rather quickly to Yen and Li, due to their ability to articulate lines in English; something that seems to further solidify the idea that this Jedi character could be rather important in the scheme of the new trilogy.

Considering the tabloid source, the veracity of the report should be prudently questioned. After all, the mere idea that Han Solo would still be around for Episode VIII could be seen as either a spoiler or irresponsible soothsaying. However, sources from the news site Twitch claim that the report is awfully close in nature to "rumblings" they’ve been hearing that Gareth Edwards, director of next year’s spinoff Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, has been looking at a number of Chinese actors. Certainly, the increasing importance of China in helping to boost profitability (and in some cases, recover losses) for big-budget bonanzas, makes it reasonable to assume that there is a grain of truth to the idea that Episode VIII might be looking to make itself more palatable to Chinese moviegoers as it heads into that critical sop****re stage.

While Donnie Yen’s lightsaber license may not yet carry an official stamp, the actor readies a slew of other big projects such as the follow-up film to one of the most successful mystical kung fu films of all time in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, which hits cinemas on August 28. Next year’s Noodle Man will see Yen as a retired Chinese-cop-turned New York City noodle shop owner, who confronts an old enemy. Additionally, next year’s Ip Man 3 will have the Hong Kong ass-kicker step into the ring with boxing legend Mike Tyson.

In the meantime, the only thing we truly know about the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII is that Looper helmer, Rian Johnson will settle into a director’s chair still sporting the lens-flare-bleached ass groove of J.J. Abrams. The film is set to hit theaters on May 26, 2017.

[GeneChing]

I've been writing off the Donnie/Star Wars buzz as just internet rumors. Glad to be proven wrong on this one. Jiang Wen too!


Star Wars: Rogue One’ Releases First Photo; Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk Join Cast (http://variety.com/2015/film/news/star-wars-rogue-one-cast-photo-mads-mikkelsen-alan-tudyk-1201571071/)

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/master_cast_photo_1of2-2.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
Jonathan Olley/Disney
August 15, 2015 | 12:54PM PT
Laura Prudom News Editor @lauinla

“Star Wars: Rogue One” released the first image of the full cast at Disney’s D23 Expo, confirming the stars as Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Riz Ahmed.

“Rogue One” has begun principal photography with “Godzilla’s” Gareth Edwards directing. The standalone film tells the story of resistance fighters who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star. The film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy.

“‘Rogue One’ takes place before the events of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the ‘Star Wars’ universe,” said Kennedy in a statement. “It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential ‘Star Wars’ feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director, and I’m so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for ‘Rogue One.’”

ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll originated the idea for the movie, with Chris Weitz penning the script. Allison Shearmur, Knoll, Simon Emanuel and Jason McGatlin are executive producers. Kiri Hart and John Swartz are co-producers.

Greig Fraser (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “Foxcatcher”) serves as director of photography and Neil Corbould (“Black Hawk Down,” “Gladiator,” “Saving Private Ryan”) is special effects supervisor. Doug Chiang (“Star Wars: Episodes I,” “Star Wars: Episodes II,” “Forrest Gump”) and Neil Lamont (supervising art director for the “Harry Potter” series, “Edge of Tomorrow”) will be the production designers. Additional crew members include stunt coordinator Rob Inch (“World War Z,” Marvel’s “Captain America: The First Avenger”), creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan (“Prometheus”) and co-costume designers Dave Crossman (costume supervisor for the “Harry Potter” series, “Saving Private Ryan”) and Glyn Dillon (costume concept artist for “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” “Jupiter Ascending”).

“Star Wars: Rogue One” will hit theaters on December 16, 2016.

[PalmStriker]

:D A must see 3D for the big screen! http://chinesemartialstudies.com/2015/08/17/can-donnie-yen-bring-kung-fu-back-to-the-star-wars-universe/

[GeneChing]

'Star Wars: Rogue One': Actor Donnie Yen Posts (And Then Deletes) Photo Of New Stormtrooper Helmets (http://www.techtimes.com/articles/79056/20150824/star-wars-rogue-one-actor-donnie-yen-posts-deletes-photo.htm)
By Robin Parrish, Tech Times | August 24, 3:55 PM

http://images.techtimes.com/data/images/full/126923/star-wars-rogue-one-helmets.jpg?w=600
Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen is one of the stars of 'Star Wars: Rogue One.' The actor today posted a picture of three Stormtrooper helmets from the film, two of which have never been seen before.
(Photo : Donnie Yen)

Donnie Yen is the Hong Kong actor and director best known for his starring role in Ip Man, but across the world he'll soon have a new claim to fame. Yen is one of the actors starring in Lucasfilm's Star Wars anthology film, Rogue One.

But he seems to have made a faux pas.

On his Instagram and Facebook accounts, Yen today posted a photo of three helmets belonging to different branches of Star Wars' villainous Empire. Less than two hours later, the photo had vanished from both accounts.

Oops.

Perhaps Yen didn't have permission to post the photo, or maybe he simply wasn't clear on the level of secrecy Lucasfilm employs for a Star Wars movie. Either way, someone from Disney or Lucasfilm obviously spoke to him, resulting in the photo's hasty deletion.

Fortunately for the rest of us, two hours was more than enough time for a handful of followers to download the pic and then post it online.

The photo shows the three helmets side-by-side on a shelf. Take a look.

http://images.techtimes.com/data/images/full/126924/donnie-yen-helmets-big-jpg.jpg?w=600
(Photo : Donnie Yen)

The one in the middle is the instantly recognizable classic Stormtrooper helmet. On the left is something evocative of the helmets worn by the Empire's TIE Fighter pilots, though this appears to be a never-before seen variant.

It's the one on the right that really catches your eye, though. That one is something that can't be easily compared to any Imperial armor we've seen before. It has overtones of the Scout Trooper helmets used by soldiers on Endor, in Return of the Jedi. But on the other hand, the yellow coloring could indicate its use in a desert environment.

Are these all helmets that Yen's character will wear in the movie, perhaps in an undercover fashion? Are they trophies he keeps after victories? Or did Yen simply walk past these in the production offices one day and snap a quick photo?

All we know for certain about Rogue One is that its storyline is a "ground-level war movie" about the band of Rebels who stole the Death Star plans shortly before the events of A New Hope.

Felicity Jones leads the Star Wars: Rogue One cast, with Yen co-starring alongside Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed, Diego Luna and Jiang Wen. It's rumored that Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin could both make appearances. Gareth Edwards is directing a script by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz, based on an original idea by VFX guru John Knoll.

Star Wars: Rogue One is scheduled to be in theaters on December 16, 2016.

Elsewhere in Star Wars news, Empire Magazine posted a new photo of actor Adam Driver as villain Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.

Oh man, Donnie don't blow this! Don't pull a Bai Ling (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?60767-Bai-Ling-s-Next-Role)!

[PalmStriker]

:) LOL! That should make for a good promo to hype Wars fans.

[GeneChing]

Star Wars 'Rogue One' (http://www.tmz.com/2015/09/15/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-set-photos/)
Filming Begins ...
May the Rebels Be with You
9/15/2015 8:20 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
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Break time's over ... the 'Star Wars' crew is back to work on the next movie -- filming a destructive scene in London.
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" started shooting last week ... and looks like the first scene centers around a crash -- complete with dead storm troopers around the wreckage. Ummm ... spoiler alert?
The movie is a spin-off from the main trilogy -- focusing on Rebel efforts to steal the Death Star plans, and it's due out in December 2016 ... right about the time fans finally start coming down from 'The Force Awakens.'
http://ll-media.tmz.com/2015/09/15/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-photos-018-480w.jpg
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There are more pix, but I cutout the redundant ones.

[GeneChing]

Might as well post it here. We have several Star Wars threads but this will be the next fresh installment. ;)


January 23, 2016
China’s secret plan to use the force of ‘Star Wars’ (http://www.riyadhvision.com.sa/2016/01/23/chinas-secret-plan-to-use-the-force-of-star-wars/)

http://i1.wp.com/www.riyadhvision.com.sa/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Song-Feideng.jpg?w=640This picture shows artist Song Feideng posing for a picture with his comic book showing a page with a drawing of Darth Vader in Guangzhou.

A long time ago in a country far, far away, Chinese authorities managed to obtain a copy of America’s ultimate cultural weapon, a blockbuster movie with enough special effects to wow an entire planet. Summoned to a small theater in the southern city of Guangzhou in 1980, artist Song Feideng was shown “Star Wars” and instructed to transform it into a traditional Chinese comic book, known as a “lianhuanhua”, to promote scientific achievement to China.

Song was one of the first people in China to see George Lucas’ magnum opus, at a time when it was still banned — a marked contrast to the status of the series’ most recent instalment in a market Hollywood increasingly sees as crucial to success.

“The objective was to take the world’s advanced science and popularize it in China,” Song, who worked for a state-owned publisher at the time, told AFP. He replaced the movie’s X-wing spacecraft with Soviet rockets and jet fighters. In one illustration, Luke Skywalker wears a cosmonaut’s bulky spacesuit, while rebel leaders are dressed in Western business suits. Darth Vader appears alongside a triceratops.

At the time, China was emerging from the isolation of the Mao Zedong era and “Star Wars” had still not been granted a release by Communist authorities, three years after it hit Western cinemas. The movie “was very novel, very exciting”, Song said, adding that he felt as if he had seen a “glimpse of the world”.

The project came amid a brief flowering of Chinese science fiction following Mao’s decade-long Cultural Revolution, when the arts were reduced to glorifying the Communist Party. Mao’s decision to send intellectuals to work in the countryside had badly affected basic scientific research.

Song spent the period on the then poverty-stricken Hainan island, producing propaganda slideshows. Science fiction has had a fraught history in China, where genre pioneer Ye Yonglie once called it “one of the barometers of the political climate”.

Shortly after the 1977 US release of “Star Wars”, the Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily attacked it as a fantasy that demonstrated how Americans’ “dissatisfaction with reality” had pushed them to “seek comfort in an illusory fairyland”.

But the following year, as China began to reopen to the world, Beijing declared sci-fi critical to rehabilitating the country’s sciences, releasing a flood of almost 1,000 new titles. A translated “Star Wars” script appeared on the mainland as early as March 1979, while Song’s comic is believed to be the first illustrated standalone.

It sold briskly, he recalled. “I could buy a TV, a stereo… it was just unimaginable.”

But the initial hopes of the country’s “reform and opening” quickly soured as artists began to criticize the government.

Speculative stories imagining a China without communism were not the plotlines authorities were looking for, and they moved to ban science fiction again.

Song’s own works — he had moved into hard-boiled noir comics featuring private eyes, femme fatales, and a keen appreciation for the female form — were criticized for “spiritual pollution”.

It was not until 1985 that “Star Wars” first appeared on Chinese screens, at a multi-city American film festival that drew millions of viewers. By the late 1980s, it was airing on local television stations, while pirate copies circulated on video. But the movies never developed the broad, devoted fan base they have enjoyed elsewhere, and most Chinese learned of the franchise through the prequels — much maligned in the West.

Song’s comic went viral ahead of the release of the latest instalment, “The Force Awakens”, but a midnight premiere in Beijing this month had a mostly foreign audience. Even so the movie raked in $90 million in its first week, according to film data website China Box Office.

The world’s second-largest economy is also its second-biggest film market and Hollywood is keen to satisfy its moviegoers, who have shown a deep appetite for Western science fiction such as Avatar or the Transformers series.

But Beijing has shown signs of resistance to that hunger, part of a wider pushback against the influence of “foreign culture”.

In 2011, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued an edict discouraging movies featuring “fantasy” and “time travel” among other “bizarre plots”. More recently, President Xi Jinping instructed artists to abandon “naive sensual amusement” and instead use “true-to-life images to tell people what they should affirm and praise”.

Song has split the difference: his latest paintings of scantily-clad models incorporate Party-friendly themes.

An illustration of a mostly naked woman, he says, symbolizes the beauty of the South China Sea. The traditional Chinese junk boat in the background, he adds, shows that the region has been Chinese since ancient times, echoing the party line on a bitter territorial dispute.

“As long as you don’t oppose the state, don’t oppose the Communist Party”, he said, “there’s no problem with whatever you draw.”

[GeneChing]

I know this interview is more about Ip Man 3, but it'll be Rogue One that Americans are really interested in...actually, the whole world will be watching this one.


25 JAN 2016
DONNIE YEN TALKS IP MAN 3 AND ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/01/26/donnie-yen-talks-ip-man-3-and-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story)
The first Chinese star to join the Lucasfilm franchise.
BY JIM VEJVODA

We recently spoke with action icon and Chinese box office star Donnie Yen about his new film, Ip Man 3 (now playing; see our positive review), as well as his role in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Yen had initially been somewhat reluctant to reprise his role as Ip Man, the legendary real-life Wing Chun Kung Fu master who mentored Bruce Lee, for a third film, but changed his mind with time. "After the first two were so successful, I wanted to top those as an actor. Also I was waiting for the director to come up with the right direction and the right idea," said Yen. Five years would eventually pass between Ip Man 2 and the third installment.

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2016/01/IpMan3-dyen-720x404.jpg
Donnie Yen reprises the title role in Ip Man 3.

Without getting into spoilerish territory, Ip Man 3 may ostensibly be about Ip Man facing down a thuggish American property developer (played by Mike Tyson!) encroaching on his community, but it's also an intensely personal tale for Ip Man as he also faces a dilemma at home that all his fighting prowess is powerless against.

"The first one was about survival during the Japanese occupation. The second one was about a particular time in China when we overcame a lot of obstacles," recalled Yen. "I think the audiences will like this because it’s about the problems that surround us every day. It’s not just a martial arts movie. It can be enjoyed that way, but it’s also got a lot of heart and soul. Hopefully you’ll come out of the theater feeling a lot of grounded values."

Yen did boast, however, that he and Tyson "have a great fight scene onscreen."

What will arguably be Yen's most high-profile role for Western audiences is yet to come. He's a part of the ensemble cast of the forthcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Gareth Edwards-directed prequel to A New Hope that chronicles how the Rebel spies stole the plans to the first Death Star.

Yen was understandably reluctant to say much about the highly secretive film. "I’m very excited to be the first Chinese actor to ever be in the biggest movie franchise in the world, Star Wars. My children love Star Wars and I saw Star Wars as a kid [Editor's note: Yen spent part of his youth in America]. It’s so great to be a part of it and I’m sure it’s going to be great."

Star Wars, though, is a largely new phenomenon to China. Indeed, younger Chinese audiences reportedly aren't flocking in droves to see the film the way they did other Hollywood imports such as Furious 7 or the Transformers sequels.

Yen dodged the question of how much of a role he will play in helping to promote Rogue One specifically to Chinese audiences. "How they’re going to sell it and how they’re going to market it I think is best for Disney to answer that," said Yen. "They’re the best marketing company in the world and I would imagine they’re going to pick out the best parts of it. Everyone knows China’s this big market now. It’s going to be overtaking Hollywood so that’s just business sense, right?"

http://assets1.ignimgs.com/2015/08/18/rogue-one-cast-1jpg-67c4af_765w.jpg
This is our first look at the resistance fighters at the heart of Rogue One, the group who band together to steal the plans to the Death Star.
Felicity Jones will star in Rogue One, which is the first Star Wars stand-alone film. She was nominated for an Oscar for 2014’s The Theory of Everything, where she played Jane Wilde Hawking, Stephen Hawking's wife (seen here on the right). While it is not currently known who she is playing in Rogue One, some rumors have pegged her character to be Boba Fett’s daughter. No disintegration!
Jones also played a supporting role in 2014 in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Felicia Hardy (seen here). While Hardy is the Black Cat in the comics, Jones never got the chance to don that feline anti-hero’s costume and claws. She also won a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for the movie Like Crazy, has appeared in films like The Tempest, The Invisible Woman, and Cheri, and even showed up in a 2008 Doctor Who episode (‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’).
Diego Luna is also part of the Rogue One team. He's been in Elysium, Milk and the upcoming Blood Father (alongside Mel Gibson). He's also a filmmaker in his own right, having directed films such as Cesar Chavez.
A crazy but fun fan theory floating around at the moment pegs Luna’s Rogue One character as Biggs Darklighter, Luke Skywalker’s friend from A New Hope. Hey, the timeline makes sense -- as does that mustache!
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Riz Ahmed was most recently seen as Jake Gyllenhaal's unlucky partner Rick in Nightcrawler. He’s also appeared in the films The Road to Guantanamo, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and the BAFTA-winning Four Lions, among others. Reportedly it was his 'chemistry' screen test with Felicity Jones which won him the part in Rogue One.
Chinese actor and filmmaker Jiang Wen looks to be a particularly fearsome, armor-wearing member of this resistance group. He’s co-written, directed and starred in films such as Let the Bullets Fly, Devils on the Doorstep, and The Sun Also Rises.
Hong Kong action maestro Donnie Yen would appear to be playing one of the more intriguing characters in the Star Wars universe. It looks as though his character is blind in the Rogue One group photo, and is that a walking stick that he carries with him… or something much deadlier? Yen will forever be remembered for his Ip Man films, based on the Wing Chun master who taught Bruce Lee.
Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role in the Netflix series Bloodline, also stars in Rogue One -- but his character is apparently not a part of the resistance. Word has it that he’s one of the film’s villains, in fact. Mendelsohn has also made his mark in films like Animal Kingdom, Killing Them Softly, The Place Beyond the Pines and The Dark Knight Rises. In the latter film, you may recall that things did not go well between Mendelsohn's character and Bane.
Forest Whitaker surely needs no introduction, especially if you’re a Fast Times fan. And while we’ll never forget Charles Jefferson’s football field rampage from that classic, Whitaker of course has been a constant presence onscreen ever since. He won an Academy Award for his turn as dictator Idi Amin in 2006’s The Last King of Scotland.
These days Mads Mikkelsen is Dr. Hannibal Lecter on NBC's Hannibal, but soon the Danish actor will be making the jump to a galaxy far, far away for Rogue One. While Mikkelsen got his start in Danish films, making a mark in the great Pusher series for director Nicolas Winding Refn, he eventually went on to find Hollywood success after playing the villainous Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. And let’s face it: He’s probably not playing the nicest guy in Rogue One either.
Alan Tudyk is no stranger to space, having piloted the titular Firefly spaceship Serenity in that Joss Whedon TV series and movie. He’ll be playing a performance-capture character in Rogue One, something which he did previously in the good old days of motion-capture... in 2004, when he appeared as Sonny the robot in I, Robot. He's also an experienced voice actor, having provided character tones for the Disney films Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen and Big Hero 6. Only time will tell what creature, monster or droid he’ll bring to life in Rogue One…

And what about those colored contact lenses we see his character's wearing in the only officially released Rogue One cast photo? Was it difficult to do action scenes wearing them? Did they obscure his vision at all? "I can’t really talk about that because of the arrangement between Disney and I, but I’m sure in a few months we’ll be able to talk about it."

Ip Man 3 is now playing. Rogue One opens December 16.

[GeneChing]

Donnie @ 1:14 :cool:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wji-BZ0oCwg

[GeneChing]

...but it's probably news to a lot of THR readers.


'Rogue One': 5 Things to Know About the Chinese Supporting Stars (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rogue-one-five-things-know-882936)
4:49 AM PDT 4/12/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn3.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/04/rogue_one.jpg
Donnie Yen in 'Rogue One'
Lucasfilm

Two of greater China's biggest stars — Jiang Wen and Hong Kong's Donnie Yen — have been cast in the 'Star Wars' prequel.

J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 2015's biggest film by far, grossed $125.4 million at the Chinese box office when it was released there earlier this year.

That's a lot of money. But it's a much smaller share of the blockbuster's worldwide total — just 6 percent of its $2.06 billion global haul — than many other Disney blockbusters have achieved in the booming Chinese movie market, which is on track to surpass North America as the world's biggest box office territory in 2017.

Disney-Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, for example, grossed $240.1 million in China of its $1.4 billion total, or 17 percent. Disney Animation's Zootopia has done one better, earning 27 percent of its worldwide gross so far — $231.5 million of $852.5 million — in China.

As THR reported in the lead up to Force Awakens' release, due to unique historical and cultural factors, the Star Wars saga doesn't have the same deep nostalgic draw in China as it does in most other places of the world.

Disney is trying to change that. Having blitzed Chinese media for Force Awakens with a multifaceted marketing campaign designed to bring a galaxy far, far away a little closer to the hearts of Chinese filmgoers, the studio's natural next step is to welcome some of China's cinematic universe into the Star Wars fold. To that end, Disney cast two of the country's biggest stars — Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen — in supporting roles in Gareth Edwards' forthcoming spin-off prequel, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Fans everywhere got a brief glimpse of the actors in action — both wielding some pretty bad-ass weaponry — when the first Rogue One teaser trailer dropped last week.

Here are five things to know about the two Chinese additions to the expanding Star Wars roster.

1) Donnie Yen is today's standard bearer of Hong Kong kung fu flicks.

First off, Donnie Yen is considered a Hong Kong star, not a mainland Chinese one — a distinction that is increasingly important to some film figures in the former British colony. Yen, now 52, spent his youth in Hong Kong and later attended high school in Boston, before dropping out to focus on studying the Wushu martial arts tradition, with a two-year stint in China training with the Beijing Wushu Team. He later studied taekwondo, Wing Chun, Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, Muayi Thai, karate and further fighting styles. After returning to Hong Kong, Yen landed small action and stunt parts in kung fu movies throughout the 1980s. His big breakthrough came in 1992, when he scored a lead role facing off in a fight scene against Jet Li in Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China. Li and Yen later reprised their rivalry in Zhang Yimou's Oscar-nominated Hero, in which Yen memorably wields a spear in a beautiful fight sequence against the unnamed sword fighter played by Li. In recent years, Yen has become one of the biggest box office draws in mainland China, thanks to his leading role in fight franchise Ip Man, a biographical kung fu series about Bruce Lee's teacher Yip Man, along with starring parts in major Chinese fantasy hits, such as The Monkey King, which earned $181.9 million in 2014.

2) Yen's presence probably means Wushu meets Stars Wars.

Although the hints in the teaser trailer are thin, it looks like Yen will be putting his many martial arts skills to good use in Rogue One. In the brief glimpse we get of him, he's dressed like a galactic Ronin and carrying some sort of metal-tipped staff, which he promptly brandishes to chop down a Storm Trooper with a sweet one-two move. Rumors suggest Yen's character is an update on the kung fu archetype of the "blind swordsman." If you look closely, he does seem to have his eyes closed in the trailer.

3) Yen's fight skills have already won him praise from two of North America's most formidable fighters — Iron Man and Iron Mike Tyson.

In Ip Man 3, the latest and third installment of his fan boy-beloved franchise, Yen trades blows with none less than former heavyweight boxing champion of the world Iron Mike Tyson. The two fighters were brought together for the project by mutual respect: "I've seen every one of his boxing matches. It's my pleasure to be able to make a film with him, and we became friends," Yen told THR in December, adding: "He said the reason why he took on the role in Ip Man 3 was because he enjoyed watching the first two Ip Man films." Tyson reportedly broke a finger during stunt fighting but the pair remained pals.

Yen's moves in Ip Man have also won him the admiration of avid Wing Chun practitioner Robert Downey Jr., aka Tony Stark aka Iron Man. "I received a phone call last year from Robert Downey Jr.," Yen said. "He has been practicing Wing Chun for 10 years. We talked for half an hour about Wing Chun. From that moment onwards, I realized the range of influence of Ip Man."

4) Actor/director Jiang Wen is a pillar of the Chinese film industry.

Jiang Wen has a few seconds in the trailer, too. The revered Chinese actor-director can be seen sporting dreadlocks and firing some sort of heavy artillery. The word from the geeks is that he plays a rogue weapons expert of some kind, but no character sketch has has been officially confirmed.

Jiang played a lead part in Hibiscus Town, Xie Jin's 1987 drama, which was nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar. He became even better known to international film lovers for his leading performance in Zhang Yimou's now classic Red Sorghum, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1987. He's written and directed artful dramas of his own (In the Heat of the Sun, 1994), but in recent years he's achieved much larger exposure by directing and starring in the hit period action-comedy pictures, Let the Bullets Fly (2010) and Gone with the Bullets (2014). Aside from appearing in Rogue One, he is said to be in discussions with the Russo Brothers, the directors behind Marvel's Captain America franchise, about directing a Chinese-language project backed by their new Anthem & Song studio venture.

5) Disney's China play has had a mixed reception in the Middle Kingdom.

Around the same time that it was trending everywhere else in the world via YouTube, the Rogue One teaser trailer hit the internet in China on local online video services, like Youku Tudou and Tencent's QQ Video (YouTube is blocked in China). On Tencent, the video has received just shy of 1 million views.

The comments section beneath the video — like comments sections in most languages — is a mixture of enthusiasm, cynicism and snark.

"I support Brother Donnie for marching into Hollywood!" wrote a user named Shalewo Zhiyuwo.

Another named Shui Zhao appeared more sensitive about being pandered to: "This is the typical approach, adding Chinese elements to make money in China."

User Gu Dou Shuo was harsher: "Hollywood probably paid these Chinese actors only so they can get the Chinese film market. We can clearly see from the trailer that they are not the leading actors. Why are they so silly to take these roles that aren't even necessary for the story? They should learn from Bruce Lee and shoot their own movies."

[GeneChing]

It is a dark time for the Rebellion.


MAY 31, 2016 4:47pm PT by Borys Kit
Disney Orders Reshoots for 'Star Wars' Stand-Alone 'Rogue One' This Summer (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/disney-orders-reshoots-star-wars-898562)

http://cdn4.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2016/04/an1-ff-010.jpg
'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Courtesy of Disney

Executives felt it was tonally off with what a “classic” 'Star Wars' movie should feel like.

Star Wars stand-alone movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will undergo several weeks’ worth of additional shooting, sources have confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Much of the cast and director Gareth Edwards will regroup in mid-June for another round of shooting. The move is happening after execs screened the film and felt it was tonally off with what a “classic” Star Wars movie should feel like. The pic has not yet been tested before audiences, but one source describes the cut as having the feel of a war movie.

The goal of the reshoots will be to lighten the mood, bring some levity into the story and restore a sense of fun to the adventure.

Rogue One focuses on the fabled mission hinted at in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, that of a group of rebels stealing the plans to the Death Star. The plans later end up in the hands of Princess Leia, who transfers them to R2-D2.

“This is the closest thing to a prequel ever,” a source tells THR. “This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins. You have to match the tone!”

And while it’s not confirmed, some suggest that the new shooting could pave the way for an appearance of Han Solo as played by Alden Ehrenreich. The actor only recently nabbed the role of the spice smuggler and was not involved in Rogue One’s principal photography, which ran from last August to February.

Disney re-introduced audiences to Star Wars with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which garnered excellent reviews and grossed over $2 billion worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. Sources say that while Edwards’ first cut was a solid showing, it didn’t measure up to the bar set in terms of four-quadrant appeal.

“Anything less than extraordinary won’t do,” says a studio insider.

Reshoots or additional shooting are practically a given in this decade of tentpole comic book, fantasy and sci-fi moviemaking. The films are massive productions, filled with so much green-screen and fit together in a way that, more often than not, demands for shooting to fill in holes or clarify plots. Even acting deals have the shoots in mind when contracts call for “run of show” appearances, which include not just shooting anytime during production but even during postproduction, say several agency sources.

The New York Post first reported about the Star Wars reshoots.

[GeneChing]

Star Wars Rogue One: Darth Vader confirmed to appear (http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/star-wars-rogue-one-darth-vader-confirmed-to-appear-a3278426.html)
The iconic character will not play the main villain in the spin-off

EMMA POWELL 2 hours ago

http://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_large/public/thumbnails/image/2016/06/22/15/darthvader2206a.jpg
Villainous: Darth Vader will star in Rogue One

Darth Vader will star in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story it has been confirmed.

The announcement, from Entertainment Weekly, ends months of speculation about an appearance from the Dark Lord of the Sith who was helping the Empire to rule the galaxy at the time the spin-off is set.

Details on his involvement are minor, but he will not be the main villain, which will instead be played by Bloodline actor Ben Mendelsohn.

Speaking about the relationship between the two characters Entertainment Weekly's Anthony Breznican told Good Morning America: "Darth Vader kind of looms large over the plot even when he's not necessarily on screen.

“[Mendleson’s] trying to fulfill the wishes of the emperor and he's got Vader looming in the background over his shoulder, making sure that he gets the job done."

Diego Luna, Jiang Wen, Donnie Yen, Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker, and Alan Tudyk have also been confirmed for the Gareth Edwards directed film which is set prior to the events of Episode 4 and will follow a group of rebels as they try to steal the plans to the Death Star.

Previously confirmed names include Felicity Jones, who will play outlaw Jyn Erso, and Mads Mikkelsen who will star as her scientist father.


Entertainment Weekly (https://twitter.com/EW/status/745598581839699968/photo/1) Verified account
‏@EW
Darth Vader is BACK! 😱 Here’s everything you need to know about ‘@StarWars: #RogueOne': http://share.ew.com/EqtxJDu
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cljl9MIWAAAWKY-.jpg

Mikkelsen recently teased the appearance of iconic characters in the spin-off film.

When asked if Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) or members of the original trilogy had joined the cast on set, he told Standard Online: “Some of them – but I would reveal too much. There are iconic characters in our film and also characters you have never heard of. It’s a mix.”

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set for UK cinema release on December 16.


I was hoping for Maul (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1296). ;)

[GeneChing]

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/styles/tout_image_gallery_612/public/i/2016/06/22/5401540004755.jpg?itok=eZbZo1Kq

‘Rogue One’ rundown (http://www.ew.com/gallery/star-wars-rogue-one-characters)
Spies are everywhere. Although some of the names of the characters from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story have leaked out, their exact histories and descriptions have remained mostly under wraps. With EW’s new cover story, we’re revealing the official dossier on each of the new heroes – and the galaxy’s shrewd new villain.

Thursday, we’ll showcase new images from the film. Now, enjoy this rundown of who’s who …

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/i/2016/06/22/46488vrt445883000.jpg
Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones)
A streetwise delinquent who has been on her own since 15, she has fighting skills and a knowledge of the galactic underworld that the Rebel Alliance desperately needs. “She’s got a checkered past,” says Lucasfilm president and Rogue One producer Kathleen Kennedy. “She has been detained [by the Rebellion] and is being given an opportunity to be useful. And by being useful, it may commute her sentence… She’s a real survivor. She becomes a kind of Joan of Arc in the story.”

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/54158s4168000.jpg
Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna)
Andor is a by-the-book Rebel intelligence officer, brought in to steady the volatile Erso, but he’s no square. He’s committed, steady, and practical, and has seen more than his share of combat. “He conveys a fair amount of experience and the reality of what it’s like to do this every day, to try to figure out how to resist the Empire effectively and intelligently,” says Kiri Hart, Lucasfilm’s chief of story development. “It’s not easy.”

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/846515888554100.jpg
Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen)
Pronounced chi-RUT, he’s no Jedi, but he’s devoted to their ways and has used his spirituality to overcome his blindness and become a formidable warrior. “Chirrut falls into the category of being a warrior monk,” says Kennedy. “He very much still believes in everything the Jedi were about.” He maintains that belief even though the Jedi are no longer there to protect the galaxy. As director Gareth Edwards puts it: "This idea that magical beings are going to come and save us is going away, and it’s up to normal, everyday people to take a stand to stop evil from dominating the world.”

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/dg044484152999630.jpg
Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen)
Heavily armored, Baze prefers a blaster to hokey religions and ancient weapons, but he is devoted to protecting his friend Chirrut at all costs. “He understands Chirrut’s spiritual centeredness, but he doesn’t necessarily support it,” Kennedy says. Baze goes along with this Force business because “it’s what his friend deeply believes,” she adds. Think of them as a little like the galactic version of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/864531289888000.jpg
Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed)
Bodhi is this Rebel squad’s lead pilot. He tends to be hot-headed, but any abrasiveness is overshadowed by his skills in the air — and the void of space. “He flies a lot of cargo, one of his key jobs,” Kennedy says. “And he tends to be a little tense, a little volatile, but everybody in the group really relies on his technical skills.”

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/dg4515572999630.jpg
K-2SO (Alan Tudyk)
This towering, powerful security droid is described by Edwards as “the antithesis of C-3PO.” In other words, he’s tough, confident, not especially interested in "human/cyborg relations," and the complete opposite of a neurotic fussbudget. “Kaytoo is a little bit like Chewbacca's personality in a droid’s body,” Edwards says. “He doesn’t give a s--- about what you think. He doesn't fully check himself before he says things and does things. He just speaks the truth.” Like Jyn, he’s also seeking a bit of redemption for past wrongs. Droids, too, can have regret.

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/845882470000.jpg
Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen)
Jyn’s estranged father is like the galactic version of nuclear pioneer J. Robert Oppenheimer, with doomsday knowledge that is sought by both the Empire and the Rebellion. “He’s one of those people that has insight into you know specific aspects of just how the universe works,” says Hart. Where has Galen been, if Jyn has been on her own for years? “The circumstances of how the family got to the state that it’s in is something that we probably don’t want to share right now,” Hart says. (Lucasfilm isn't revealing his image yet, so this is file picture. Don't worry -- the button-down isn't retro galactic fashion.)

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/46488226693000.jpg
Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn)
On the opposing side, this villain is an ambitious Imperial apparatchik who intends to use his squad of Deathtroopers to pulverize the Rebel uprising and ascend into the Emperor’s graces – while hopefully avoiding the wrath of his enforcer, Darth Vader. “The bad guy is a lot more terrifying when he’s really smart, and really effective,” says Knoll. “There is a lot of palace intrigue going on in the Empire, with people conspiring to move up the ranks and sabotaging each other. There’s not a lot of loyalty there.”

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1466601534/46813520000.jpg
Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker)
This character has a past that Star Wars completists will recognize immediately when they see his name, even if he looks very different than the way they've seen him before. (He even looks different from when we saw him in the teaser trailer.) There's so much to say about this character, we’re going to break out a separate on him and his history in The Clone Wars.

Image Credit: Jules Heath/2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. & tm, All Rights Reserved
Published by Anthony Breznican • @Breznican
June 22 2016 — 11:16 AM EDT


Chirrut Imwe = new entry in Blind-Masters (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69153-Blind-Masters)

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUb_zpdyDpU

I trust you've all been following our own little Star Wars tribute with the release of our most recent cover story (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1302) and now today, with the first part of the Ray Park interview extras (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1303).

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkHtdmWVmzQ

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY

[GeneChing]

AUGUST 17, 2016 11:39pm PT by Patrick Brzeski
'Rogue One' Trailer Generates Mixed Response in China (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/rogue-one-trailer-generates-mixed-920515)
Disney needs to drum up enthusiasm for the 'Star Wars' universe in China, where viewers are surpassingly unfamiliar with the space saga.

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2016/04/rogue_one.jpg
Donnie Yen in 'Rogue One' Lucasfilm

Disney needs to drum up enthusiasm for the 'Star Wars' universe in China, where viewers are surpassingly unfamiliar with the space saga.
It's been nearly a week since the new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dropped in China, the world's second-largest film market, and the reaction appears mixed.

With as many as four or five sequels and spinoffs in the works, Disney urgently needs to deepen enthusiasm for the Star Wars franchise in China. Since the original three films in the saga were never released theatrically in the country — and the much-derided prequels came out before the Chinese box office boom had kicked off in earnest — the adventures of Luke and Leia remain a galaxy far, far away to many moviegoers there. Force Awakens grossed a healthy $124.1 million in China, but that's almost half the $240.1 million that Avengers: Age of Ultron earned there.

With Rogue One, Disney has taken a big step towards bringing China into the fold by casting two of the country's biggest stars: Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen. Yen, widely regarded as today's standard-bearer of the Hong Kong martial arts tradition, appears to play a blind, Force-attuned intergalactic Ronin of some kind. And Jiang, one of the country's most respected actors, looks to have a part as a weapons expert decked out in dreads and heavy artillery (for more on the actors and their parts in Rogue One, see here).

"There are mixed sentiments regarding the two Chinese stars," Alexander Leung of Hong Kong-based social media analysis film Lamplight Analytics tells Heat Vision. "Some are saying saying they don't believe the characters are pivotal to the plot at all; others are praising Disney for increasing diversity in the Star Wars franchise."

A mixed response is far better than the reaction many past Hollywood films have generated with their use of local Chinese talent. Social media users in the country are highly skeptical of token castings of major Chinese stars in minor roles in Western movies. The brief appearances of Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing in Iron Man 3, for example, were widely derided as blatant pandering for market gain. Chinese actress Angelababy appeared in a bigger part in Fox's Independence Day: Resurgence earlier this summer, but many Chinese viewers still complained that her character was essentially dispensable. Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou's central role in Lionsgate's Now You See Me 2, by contrast, generated considerable excitement, as his persona and character were viewed as a natural and essential fit for the story (the film earned $97.1 million in China compared to $64.9 million in North America, and Lionsgate is now making a Chinese-language Now You See Me spinoff).

Chinese media outlet Sina Movies offered a positive take on the Rogue One trailer earlier this week, writing from its Weibo account, "Excited for Darth Vader! And Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen shot a lot of action scenes — looks good!"

"I really hope it's not the same approach as Independence Day 2...," posted a more skeptical user named Ding Yi.

"Jiang Wen is the first real Chinese actor to be cast by Hollywood, and Donnie Yen is the first true martial arts master to play a Jedi," commented someone using the handle Lomadia.

"What is this, Ip Man 4 vs. Aliens?," joked Tu Chang, referencing Yen's hit kung fu franchise.

It really amuses me that China got the two Star Wars trilogies reversed. That would totally ruin it for me too, I imagine.

[GeneChing]

Next best announcement for Rogue One since Donnie. :cool:


Rogue One: Felicity Jones on the importance of women in the Rebellion (http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/12/rogue-one-felicity-jones-importance-women-rebellion?iid=sr-link1)
Part five of EW's 'Star Wars' week.
BY ANTHONY BREZNICAN • @BREZNICAN

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/styles/tout_image_612x380/public/i/2016/08/11/ew-rogue64000233923.jpg?itok=8PKw_hqy
(Jonathan Olley)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Posted August 12 2016 — 12:01 PM EDT

With the new Rogue One trailer dropping Thursday night, Entertainment Weekly has been posting a week of new stories about the upcoming stand-alone Star Wars film. Here’s part five.

It was a meeting at dawn in hushed restaurant when Felicity Jones found herself recruited for a covert mission.

Director Gareth Edwards (previously best known for Godzilla) had recently signed on to make Rogue One, the first Star Wars stand-alone film about the Rebel soldiers who steal the original Death Star blueprints, and he was considering her as the big sister to lead this band of brothers.

“We were both working at the time and we met at something like 5:30 a.m. in a hotel restaurant,” Jones recalls. “Most of the meeting was conducted in whispers as he explained the story and the character. My first introduction was definitely one shrouded in secrecy and being very careful no one overheard what we were talking about.”

With the movie opening Dec. 16, she’s finally at the stage when she can talk about it. But The Theory of Everything Oscar-nominee has a lot more to discuss, too. She’s in three other movies opening this year: the action-thriller Collide (Aug. 19), the bittersweet supernatural tale A Monster Calls (Oct. 21), and the third Da Vinci Code film Inferno (Oct. 28.)

Nothing pushed her to the limit like playing Rogue One’s Jyn Erso, the loner whose scientist father has knowledge vital to both the Rebels and the Empire. To help the Rebellion secure the plans that will eventually help Luke Skywalker destroy the Death Star, her conscripted outlaw will fight in space, on land, in the pouring rain, and under a sweltering desert sun.

“I’m laughing now, but at the time, it was physically exhausting,” says the actress, 32. “It took a lot of hours of practice, and I worked with a kung fu coach, and I learned to fight, even though I never thought beating up Stormtroopers was something I’d be doing in my job. It came through hard work and lots of practice and rehearsals.”

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1470970959/Rogue-One-Trailer-08_0.jpg

At 5-foot-3, Jones is not the typical war-movie brawler, but she says that’s part of Jyn’s underdog appeal.

“She is absolutely a very unlikely heroine,” the actress says. “She’s someone on the edges and fringes of society. Physically, she’s smaller than everyone else around her, but… when someone has something they believe in, that’s what powers them, that’s what motivates them, that’s what can give someone enormous strength.”

Edwards says he chose Jones because she wasn’t “so kick-ass and shields-up that the audience couldn’t empathize with her.”

“There were a lot of people who could learn how to fight and beat people up and do the physical side of it. For me, the most interesting thing is when there’s a crack in the armor, when you can glimpse the vulnerability in someone,” the director says. “You can just hang the camera on Felicity and not say a word, and you can feel her having a million different thoughts. You get interested in what she’s thinking and what’s going on. She can be very observant within a scene. It doesn’t always have to be about her directly, but we’re experiencing it through her. She just has that knack for pulling you in.”

Jyn can now join Daisy Ridley’s Rey from The Force Awakens as another inspiration to girls eager to fight for a good cause, but the character also has her own hero: Mon Mothma (played by Genevieve O’Reilly), the former Galactic Senator who is uniting the Rebel Alliance. There’s no doubt a lot of dudes make up the resistance fighting force, but women — such as Princess Leia at the diplomatic level, to Jyn on the battlefield — are its leaders.

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1470972260/trailer-rogue-one-006_0.jpg

“I would say there’s a huge amount of respect for women in the Rebellion. Mon Mothma is ultimately, for Jyn, someone she looks up to,” Jones says. “So even as the film opens [Jyn] has a very strong female role model in front of her, and someone she respects.”

At a time when the United States has just nominated its first female candidate for president, Jones says fantasy can change reality for the better by showing even more female action heroes. “It’s vital,” she says. “As we’re seeing in politics, it is a world where women are becoming leaders of nations, and films should be reflecting that.”

“I’m With Her” is already taken as a slogan in our world, but the infantry tough guys of Rogue One will be following a similar battle cry: “I’m With Erso.”

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Mr2XfpADo

"Take hold of this moment"

Oooh, that gave me a chill. Can't wait for this.

[GeneChing]

More Felicity Kung Fu here (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68803-Star-Wars-Rogue-One&p=1295955#post1295955).


Felicity Jones did kung fu every day for 'Rogue One' (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/english/hollywood/news/Felicity-Jones-did-kung-fu-every-day-for-Rogue-One/articleshow/55009111.cms)
PTI | Updated: Oct 23, 2016, 11:16 IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/55009181.cms

Actress Felicity Jones reveals she had to do vigorous training in preparation for 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. The 33-year-old actress, who portrays Jyn Erso, was surprised by how much training she had to put herself through prior to shooting the upcoming epic space opera film.
"I've never done this level of physical preparation for something before. Particularly for 'Rogue One', where I was training every day and doing kung fu rehearsals on a daily basis. But that's part of the reason why I wanted to do it, because it was very different from what I'd done before."
'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' is set to hit cinemas in the US on December 16.

[GeneChing]

James had the coolest Halloween costume of 2016.


donnieyenofficial (https://www.instagram.com/p/BMPoLCwgKum/)
Follow

https://instagram.fsnc1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/t51.2885-15/e35/14701345_1415768628451426_5402922211004645376_n.jp g

You can see we have the force!! 😆💪#Repost @sweetcil
・・・
Like father like son.
Thank you to our amazing Bullet films costume design team in HK for making this coolest #chirrutimwe costume for James!! And thx to #Disney for sending us the materials! #happyhalloween #starwars #rogueone #bulletfilms #donnieyen #甄子丹 @bulletfilmsofficial #lucasfilms
9,913 likes
2d
donnieyenofficialYou can see we have the force!! 😆💪#Repost @sweetcil
・・・
Like father like son.
Thank you to our amazing Bullet films costume design team in HK for making this coolest #chirrutimwe costume for James!! And thx to #Disney for sending us the materials! #happyhalloween #starwars #rogueone #bulletfilms #donnieyen #甄子丹 @bulletfilmsofficial #lucasfilms

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqVHdIB2qs

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euG4DNoV97Y

China trailer = more Donnie :)

[GeneChing]

http://www.star2.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/doc6rvfs94d7rn1bqcvregp-770x470.jpg
Felicity Jones is proud of her kungfu skills
DECEMBER 11, 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIE NEWS, MOVIES, PEOPLE
BY AGENCY

Felicity Jones steps into the big league with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in an action blockbuster role that carries the first spin-off movie in the space franchise.

Jones, 33, is best known for her Oscar-nominated role as the wife of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything and as Tom Hanks’ sidekick in the 2016 adventure Inferno.

Reuters spoke with the British actress about training for the role of rebel Jyn Erso and finding the Force for the movie which opens Dec 16. The following are edited excerpts.

How much idea of the film did you have when you got cast?

I didn’t know a great deal but I did know that she was going to be a rather extraordinary character because my agent said ‘I think you’re going to really like playing this part’. And so she was true to her word.

At what point did you go ‘Oh my god. I’m actually in a Star Wars film’?

It takes a while for it to drop … and then you think ‘Oh my god. I’ve got to get to the gym’. I got to start training really quickly and to get to the kind of level of fitness that you need for something like this. It is absolutely magical being on set even when … we would be doing a lot of military type scenes and running and kind of clambering out of our bunkers and having sand thrown in your face. But through all of that there is much joy in being part of it.

You studied kungfu, is that right?

I did yeah. I worked with this kungfu teacher who would constantly tell me to think like Tiger Girl, so that would be in my head before doing a fight sequence. I’d think ‘I’ve got to think like Tiger Girl’.

Does Jyn get to meet Darth Vader?

You have to wait and see.

How much of a Force user is Jyn?

She definitely has the Force within her. It’s her mother’s legacy really and the Force for Jyn is more about belief and hope.

Is she Rey’s mother?

(shakes head) – Reuters/Rollo Ross




Tiger Girl. That's funny. Master Dee Dee said a similar thing to Ally while coaching her for INTO THE BADLANDS (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67844-Into-The-Badlands&p=1298547#post1298547).

[GeneChing]

The tradition of blind masters (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69153-Blind-Masters&p=1294536#post1294536) continues in a galaxy far, far away...


'Rogue One': Donnie Yen explains the hardest part of fighting blind (http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/12/11/rogue-one-donnie-yen-chirrut-imwe/95296262/)
Carly Mallenbaum , USA TODAY 7:37 a.m. EST December 11, 2016

Actor Donnie Yen says the most difficult part of his role in 'Rogue One' was not the martial arts, it was playing a blind character.

In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the most skillful warrior (and perhaps most likable character) in the galaxy is Chirrut Îmwe. The spiritual character, played by renowned Chinese martial artist Donnie Yen, can do more with a stick than most can with a lightsaber.

And the character is blind.

Yen isn't visually-impaired in real life, but playing a blind character whose gaze is always forward presented challenges — most of which had nothing to do with fighting.

"I don't think that was the most difficult part because I've been in many of these, 70 of these (action) films before," he told USA TODAY on the Rogue One premiere carpet in Hollywood Saturday. "To me, the hardest part was I wasn't able to interact with my fellow actors. I wasn't able to look them in the eyes and draw on their reactions."

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/584e144ca5da20b31d6e0a1a07470b068d3bb054/c=0-108-2178-1338&r=x329&c=580x326/local/-/media/2016/12/11/USATODAY/USATODAY/636170276737959072-GTY-629029704.jpg
On the 'Rogue One' carpet, Donnie Yen told USA TODAY's Facebook Live viewers that no, he's not blind in real life. (Photo: Jason LaVeris, FilmMagic)

Another thing making Yen's job hard? Foggy contact lenses. They were so uncomfortable, Yen said, that he had to remove them every 20 minutes.

Rogue One, the first standalone Star Wars film, hits theaters Dec. 16.

[GeneChing]

It was all about Donnie, IMO. He was the most interesting character.


How to kick ass like martial arts master Liang Yang (http://www.mensfitness.com/life/entertainment/how-kick-ass-martial-arts-master-liang-yang)
The mentor taught Felicity Jones martial arts moves worthy of the 'Star Wars' franchise.
by Men's Fitness Editors

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Though Liang Yang flexed his stunt-double chops in Skyfall and X-Men: First Class, he's more than just a stand-in.

The martial arts specialist has trained scores of actors for fight scenes: He worked with Daisy Ridley for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (he even acted, playing TR8R, aka the Stormtrooper who calls Finn a ‘Traitor!’ before the two battle) and he trained Felicity Jones for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a prequel in the Star Wars canon, which opened on Friday.

Jones plays saboteur Jyn Erso, a soldier in the rebel Alliance who's involved in numerous fight scenes. So Yang concentrated on her coordination and strength.

He used full-impact pad drills ("This helped her crouch in many of the low fighting stances") and boosted her spatial awareness and lower-body strength in a weeks-long boot camp where she learned to perfect, among other moves, high-impact lunges and all manner of high and low kicks.

"Felicity's fitness level was good," Yang says. "But martial arts training is very different from other workouts."

Men’s Fitness spoke with Yang about how he prepped Jones and others in the Rogue One cast to hone their various martial arts skill-sets.

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MF: A film like Rogue One requires a certain amount of athleticism, so did you put the cast through any specific fitness tests and then tailor your training to their fitness levels?

LY: For all cast members we do assessments to see their fitness levels and what their general movement is like. This provides an idea of how we should train them and then what particular fighting style works for their character. It depends on the scene we need to prepare for; if it’s a specific fight scene, for example, we assess their general movements whilst punching and using kick pads. We used this assessment, alongside the character's role, to choose a suitable fighting style so that training would be fluid and specifically tailored for this actor/actress alone.

MF: What discussions did you have with Gareth [Edwards, the director] for how he wanted the action to look in the film?

LY: He wanted the martial arts in the film to have a grounded, realistic feel.

MF: Who among the cast was a natural and took easily to your training?

LY: All the cast members have a strong work ethic towards their craft, which was shown throughout their rigorous martial arts training. Everyone was committed, dedicated and put in endless effort to mastering this type of art for their given characters.

MF: How did the martial arts training differ between Rogue One and The Force Awakens? Are there any new elements the cast had to train in?

LY: Rogue One is a standalone movie and the new characters are diverse, with each demonstrating a unique style. Felicity’s fighting style is direct whereas Chirrut Imwe’s [played by Donnie Yen] style is flamboyant. The creative team allowed us to stretch our imaginations in martial arts ideas to create fighting styles to suit each character.

As we got to understand Felicity’s character, we all decided to make her very strong, powerful and her attacking style very direct. As Donnie is a master in martial arts himself, we gathered his input in creating his flamboyant fighting style.

By contrast, in The Force Awakens the main characters’ fighting styles continued along the Jedi Knights style of light sabres and using the force.

MF: For Felicity, then, did you have to put her through a boot camp before the martial arts training began or were her fitness levels ready to go?

LY: Felicity exercises regularly on her own, but when we started with Felicity, we knew she had no form of martial arts training. Coordination and spatial awareness in a fight scene is vital, especially when multiple opponents are involved, and Felicity had many fight scenes where she had to perform a number of dynamic movements involving blocking, attacking, switching directions, and aiming at lower and upper parts of the body. All these high impact movements had to be timed precisely and at full speed.

We also knew Felicity needed a lot of leg and waist strength because most of the power in a fight originates from there. She had to work very hard practicing leg movements in specific martial arts stances that strengthened her legs as well as increased her flexibility. All of this enabled her to crouch in many of the low stances appropriate when fighting.

At the same time, Felicity’s character had to do a lot of big movements. These involved a lot of high impact lunges and dynamic movements, so it was important to help improve Felicity’s flexibility in order to avoid any injuries while at the same time allowing her to express herself physically through her performance.

MF: So is there a sample workout that you put her and the rest of the cast through?

LY: The fitness instructor for the cast and myself collaborated, and as a martial artist, our strength training is comprised of different methods compared to a fitness trainer's methods.

For example, in leg workouts, a fitness trainer would use leg weights, squats or even jumping in terms of doing repetition to build muscle. Whereas implementing martial arts fighting stances such as Bow stance, Crouching stance, or Horse stance, the body posture, balance and coordination when moving builds all types of muscles throughout the entire lower body which includes legs and core.

We helped the cast built arm strength when rehearsing attacking and defending weapons fight sequences. However, not only focusing exclusively on strength, as speed, control and explosive power is fundamentally important to work on a daily basis.

MF: Because much of the moves are grounded in being flexible, was there any training that sought to improve their flexibility?

LY: Every session consisted of a warm up and warm down routine. To warm up, we did some light cardio jogging, and then a variety of leg stretches. They’d stretch their hamstring, do some bow stretches, butterfly stretches and frog stretches, as well as neck circles.

The hips are so important to martial arts. That’s where all of the flexibility and coordination comes from. If we learned that someone had never done any martial arts training before, we knew the flexibility in their hips needed improvement for the demands required for their character role. I’d assign daily homework of the face down frog stretch—you’re kneeling down wide with your elbows on the floor parallel to your hips. Where you gradually open up your groin to as wide as possible and hold this position for at least five minutes.

At first, it will seem easy and simple but after the first minute the pain begins to kick in.

MF: What differed in how you approached the film training-wise?

LY: For all of the cast—not just Felicity—we focused on those three tenets of flexibility, coordination, and strength. It is important for any fighting style to work on these areas. Each day, we’d first warm up and stretch before we began coordination drills, which used full impact pad work and included punching and kicking. We also focused on allowing the actors to express their character’s aggression to connect with the scene.

Then if an actor needs help on specific techniques, we employed drills that worked on strengthening arms, legs, posture, and stance.

Once we set a base level of flexibility and strength, we felt comfortable to finally begin rehearsing the fight choreography. During the course of all of this training, though, if there were specific areas that an actor is uncomfortable with, whether because of the training or not feeling up to executing the fight scene, we would then break it down and work on that specific section with the actor until they are happy with it.

[GeneChing]

Like I said before, R1 was all about Donnie for me.


'Rogue One' star and fan favorite Donnie Yen almost passed on the film
(http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-hc-rogue-one-donnie-yen-20161217-story.html)
http://www.trbimg.com/img-5855701b/turbine/la-jrottenberg-1481994307-snap-photo/750/750x422
Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe in the film "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." (Jonathan Olley / Lucasfilm / TNS)
Josh Rottenberg

You’d think pretty much any actor alive who can do a halfway decent flying kick would jump at the chance to play a martial-arts-fighting, Force-sensitive monk in a “Star Wars” movie. But internationally known action star Donnie Yen initially resisted the idea of signing on to play Chirrut Îmwe in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” To put it in Jedi terms, Chirrut was simply not the role he was looking for.

A key player in the Rebel mission to steal the Death Star plans, capable of single-handedly taking out a squadron of Stormtroopers with just a wooden staff and his trust in the Force, Chirrut has now become one of the major breakout characters in “Rogue One.” And it’s safe to say Yen is glad he came around.

We spoke to Yen, 53, earlier this month at the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco about why he resisted joining “Rogue One,” how the deadly but deadpan character evolved and how his presence in the film could impact the box office in China.

How did you get involved in “Rogue One” to begin with?

Oh goodness, to be honest, it sounds crazy. My agent called me and he said, “Disney is looking for you and they want you to be in ‘Star Wars.’” At first I said, ‘OK, they probably want me to swing the light saber against Darth Vader or something.’ Then [director] Gareth [Edwards] called me and started telling me that there would be no Jedi in the movie and about this particular character.

It’s crazy but I was hesitant about taking this role. I was flattered but at the same time I didn’t want to leave my family for five months to go to London, because I just got off another movie.

I turned to my children and I said, “Do you like baba’s ‘Ip Man’ series?” — because I’m known to Western audiences for ‘Ip Man.’ “Or do you want baba to be in ‘Star Wars’?” They went, “‘Star Wars,’ of course!”

I said, ‘Wait a minute — there’s something special there.’ Then my friends and family and fanboys, everybody was so excited and I realized, this is not just making a movie. You’re making history here. So that’s how I got involved, and I’m so glad I did.

The original “Star Wars” trilogy wasn’t released in China at the time. Did you have any connection to the franchise growing up?

I spent some years living in Boston as a teenager, and I saw “A New Hope” and “Empire Strikes Back” there. But I’ve been in the business 35 years and I never expected to be in “Star Wars.” That never sunk in until in the middle of making the film: “I’m in ‘Star Wars’ — how cool is that!”

How did Gareth initially pitch his take on the movie and who Chirrut would be?

I asked him a very blunt, frank question: “Why do you want me to be in your film? The China market? The Asian market?” Because originally I thought, ‘Oh, they just want me to kick some Stormtrooper’s butt.’

And he said no, that he watches all my films and he wants a very specific persona in Chirrut by Donnie Yen. That was very flattering, and that was the answer I was looking for.

Then when I started reading the script, I realized that I get to say the coolest lines. Chirrut is not a Jedi but he has all the lines of “Star Wars” metaphor. You know, “May the Force be with you.” “I’m one with the Force and I fear nothing.”

I mean, what more can I want? People die to do this — and I have the coolest lines!

You’ve obviously done many martial-arts movies but have you ever had to do fight scenes in which you were supposed to be blind?

No, never. I thought that was really challenging. I underestimated that situation.

How Chirrut ended up being blind was a collaboration of me and Gareth. During the process, we were talking about different possibilities and he was asking my opinions. I said, “I want this character not to be so clichéd. I’ve played this character thousands of times — this type of bad-ass, skillful warrior hero. I want him to be grounded. I want him to be human, even vulnerable. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have him blind?”

He liked the idea, Disney loved it — and Chirrut ended up being blind.

The other thing that was very important to me is: “Listen, I know he’s a true believer and he’s constantly preaching his philosophies. But let’s make him like you and I: He has a sense of humor. He gets it. He can have a beer with you.”

Those are two things I’m glad this character ended up having.

How was it actually performing the fight scenes without really being able to see?

I’ve done choreography all my life and that, to me, was not a problem. But having the contact lenses and having to take them off every three hours and have a rest — and on top of that, every 30 seconds they have to put drops in my eyes. It was very irritating. It was very blurry. It was hard to judge distance. But that was OK because I’m supposed to be blind anyway.

I relied on my instincts and experience from many movies. That wasn’t the most difficult part. The most difficult part was not being able to interact with my fellow actors. I wasn’t able to look them in the eyes to inform the action. I didn’t want to look robotic — no offense to Alan [Tudyk, who plays droid K-2SO]. But at the same time, I had to have that kind of blank state of mind.

Over the summer, there were reports of extensive reshoots on “Rogue One,” and people were speculating about whether the film was in trouble and how much was being changed. How much was true and how much was just rumors?

This Internet today, you never know the whole story — and even if you do, there are so many angles of looking at the matter.

I’ve never done a movie that has no reshoots. The most important thing is that, at the end, you see a good movie. These are the processes. You have to filter the materials — that’s the artistic process.

The greatest painter — he’s not going to get it the first time. He’ll do a couple of brush strokes here, a couple of brush strokes here.

The “Star Wars” franchise still isn’t as deeply established in China as it is in other parts of the world. You said you didn’t want to be cast simply to help boost the Asian box office. But have you gotten any sense that audiences in China are more excited about “Rogue One” because you’re in it?

I would like to think so [laughs]. After all, the film business is business. It’s supply and demand, right? China is the biggest audience in the world. If I’m a producer, I would put Chinese actors like myself in a film — it just makes sense. It’s the right thing to do.

Also, I think morally, the world we live in today should be this way. It should be diverse and in peace and unity to make a better place.

[GeneChing]

I've had one person comment that Jiang Wen's character reminded them of me. Finally, FINALLY, I can do some Star Wars cosplay. :p


Inclusion of Chinese stars Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen raises 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' hype in China (http://english.sina.com/ent/mo/2016-12-22/detail-ifxyxusa4745888.shtml)
2016-12-22 03:20:31 GMT2016-12-22 11:20:31(Beijing Time) Global Times

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Promotional material for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story featuring Jiang Wen (left) and Donnie Yen Photo: ICPromotional material for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story featuring Jiang Wen (left) and Donnie Yen Photo: IC

While Star Wars: The Force Awakens received a lukewarm reception in the Chinese mainland last year, the newest entry into the franchise looks poised to turn things around.
With their film dominating the North American box office by raking in $155 million during its debut three-day weekend, the film's producers quickly launched a limited showing and a star-meet activity on Tuesday and Wednesday in Beijing, weeks before the film's official Chinese mainland release on January 6.
"There is a lot to expect from the performances of Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen... The action scene in which Yen fights against the stormtroopers with a staff was fantastic," netizen dianying wanjia posted on Sina Weibo, giving the latest Star Wars film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, four and half stars out of five after the advanced screening of the film on Tuesday.

Market targeting

One of the barriers for last year's The Force Awakens was that it was the first Star Wars film to come to the mainland, which raised the barrier of entry for non-fans of the franchise.
The new film, however, seems to stand a better chance now that mainland audiences are more aware of the Star Wars brand. But the producers also have another two weapons in their arsenal: Jiang and Yen. The choice to include these two popular Chinese stars as supporting roles in the film may prove to be an effective market move by the producers.
Jiang is a well-known mainland actor and director whose works include In the Heat of the Sun (1994), Devils on the Doorstep (2000) and Let the Bullets Fly (2010). While he is not a very productive filmmaker, Jiang's roles and directorial works have been very well-received.
Hong Kong actor Yen, on the other hand, is one of the most popular action stars in China, and probably the second best-known Chinese action star after Jackie Chan globally. His recent roles include kung fu master Ip Man in the Ip Man franchise.
Earlier this year, The Force Awakens earned 826 million yuan ($118.90 million) at the mainland box office, ranking it at No.12 on the 2016 box-office chart at the moment. While not a small amount, these earnings accounted for only 6 percent of the film's $2.06 billion global revenue. Whereas, Warcraft's Chinese mainland box office made up nearly half of its global earnings that same year. A major reason behind The Force Awakens' weak performance in the Chinese market was that it didn't strike a chord among non-Star Wars fans.

Another try

Rogue One is not the first Hollywood blockbuster to bring in Chinese stars in order to increase its chances in China.
In 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, mainland actress Fan Bingbing was invited to play a mutant known as Blink. Yet with her appearing for only a few seconds, Fan's role disappointed Chinese audiences. Last June's Independence Day: Resurgence saw Chinese actress Yang Yin play a supporting role, and also featured a military base on the Moon built by the Chinese. However, Yang was criticized for giving a rigid performance, while the blatant produce placement of Chinese brands left many in China feeling awkward.
Although many Chinese netizens suspected that Jiang and Yen's inclusion in Rogue One was yet another pure market-driven choice as well, the two stars have much bigger roles in the film than previous attempts to include Chinese actors. Meanwhile, the film currently holds a high score of 8.1/10 on Chinese film site Mtime and a 7.8/10 on Chinese media review site Douban. Positive feedback from audiences who have already seen the film outside the mainland has helped hype the movie among domestic moviegoers.
The film has already released in Taiwan and Hong Kong. So far, reviews from local critics and audiences have been fairly positive.
In its review, unwire.hk said that although the spinoff film didn't feature light sabers or the Force, the action scenes were far better than The Force Awakens.
"It has similar problems that Dawn of Justice had," the review said, explaining that character motivations and character building are weak.
However, in general the site was positive toward the film, especially praising scenes involving Yen.
"Recent years have seen many Chinese actors in Hollywood blockbusters, but in most cases they only show up to give one or two lines… the role Yen plays has many scenes and is impressive."
A netizen in Taipei going by the name Judy gave the film three out of five stars on Douban, saying that while she was disappointed in the story, she enjoyed the action scenes.
"Jiang and Yen do stand out," she wrote.

[GeneChing]

#StarWars
'Rogue One' Star Jiang Wen Has Never Seen Star Wars! (https://moviepilot.com/p/rogue-one-star-has-never-seen-original-star-wars-films/4178865)
December 29, 2016 at 08:48AM

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Jiang Wen's Baze in 'Rogue One'. [Credit: Lucasfilm]
By Tom Bacon, writer at CREATORS.CO
I'm a film-and-TV fan who grew up with a deep love of superhero comics! Follow me on Twitter @TomABacon or on Facebook @tombaconsuperheroes!

We all know the story of Star Wars: in 1977, film-maker George Lucas sealed his place in history with the unexpected sci-fi blockbuster hit, starring Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford's Han Solo, and the late, great Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa. The latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One, is proving itself to be a box office hit in its own right, all the more astounding given the film's a standalone that doesn't even feature the core cast.

Now, in an amazing twist, it seems that - as beloved as Star Wars may be to Western audiences - one of the stars of #RogueOne had never even seen the movies!

Meet Jiang Wen - The Star Wars Hero Who's NEVER SEEN Star Wars!

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Baze and Chirrut in 'Rogue One'. [Credit: Lucasfilm]

In conversation with Empire, the cast of Rogue One surprised us all with a revelation. Rogue One director Gareth Edwards was explaining that he took some unusual steps with Rogue One, not the least of which was casting the franchise's first Asian actors, superstars Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, as Chirrut and Baze. As he explained, the rationale was simple:


"It feels right that there'd be Asian characters in Star Wars, because it's got such Asian influences. And because it's Star Wars, you can kind of go for anyone: "Who are the best Asian actors in the world?""

To his amazement though, he learned that Jiang Wen — who played Baze Malbus — had never seen Star Wars! Adding to the humor of the situation, Edwards begged Jiang Wen not to watch it. He just found so much humor in the idea of Jiang Wen getting to the premiere of Rogue One without having seen the originals!

Why Hasn't Jiang Wen Seen Star Wars?

You have to understand that the world of 1977 was a very different place. Although we typically hear about the history of the Cold War with regards to the USA and Russia, relations between the USA and China had been pretty tense as well. It wasn't until 1979 - two years after the release of A New Hope - that the US established formal diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. China's official "One China Principle," which insists on Chinese ownership of Taiwan, remained a diplomatic roadblock even through the 1980s, although Ronald Reagan successfully built stronger relationships with the Chinese government.

However the end of the 1980s saw everything change; with the USSR falling apart at the seams, the Chinese government likewise faced calls for reform. Their response was brutal, with the famous massacre at Tiananmen Square. President George H. W. Bush took a conciliatory tone, reluctantly imposing sanctions but sending an envoy to China to assure the leaders of his support. As historian Warren Cohen notes:


"Businessmen in the United States, much like those in Japan and elsewhere, clamored for the opportunity to buy, sell, and invest in China. Beijing recognized that it need not carry out political liberalization to be guaranteed an end to the most onerous sanctions—and it did not."

https://images.moviepilot.com/images/c_limit,q_auto,w_710/atq9unwc1rbxj4bbe7wy/george-bush-credit-wikipedia-commons.jpg
George Bush. [Credit: Wikipedia Commons]

As the decades have passed, the Chinese government has gradually relaxed restrictions, and allowed US movies to release in China. That said, the releases are highly regulated, with only a small number of foreign films allowed box office showings, while until this year the government appears to have imposed unofficial 'blackout' periods. This allowed local films to air without competition at peak viewing times, such as the Chinese New Year, mid-Summer and December.

Still, this historical background means there's a very simple reason Jiang Wen hasn't seen Star Wars. As he explains:


"When I grew up, there were no American movies in China. That was Cold War time, so no Star Wars."

Good News, Fans!


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Follow
Jiang Wen (https://twitter.com/BazeJiangWen/status/754039523332460544/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) @BazeJiangWen
He is thinker, I am doer. Anyway, I have a huge gun.
12:46 PM - 15 Jul 2016
2 2 Retweets 1 1 like

This is clearly just one of those amusing quirks of history, but in good news for Star Wars fans everywhere it seems Jiang Wen aims to fill that gap in his knowledge. No longer under Edwards' restriction, he told Empire:


"I will see it after I finish this movie, from beginning to end."

There's a brilliant irony to the fact that one of the stars of Rogue One, the first Star Wars spinoff, hadn't actually seen the movies before he made his debut in the franchise. Given that the Guardians of the Whills are sure to crop up some more, we may yet see Jiang Wen return in other spinoffs, though presumably set at an earlier point in time.

By then, he's probably going to have watched the films!
I brought up the fact that most Chinese had not seen the original Star Wars trilogy in my Chollywood Rising column in our NOV+DEC 2016 issue (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1316).

[GeneChing]

This reminds me of all the Bruce Lee posthumous CGIs. Remember the ping pong one (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64863-Bruce-Lee-Ping-Pong)? Of course you do. I just rewatched Game of Death (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?11621-Game-of-Death) again recently and was struck by how that could be redone now via CGI (I should review that...)



Fri Dec 30, 2016 | 3:39pm EST
Actors seek posthumous protections after big-screen resurrections (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-film-resurrections-analysis-idUSKBN14J1TU?utm_source=applenews)

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FILE PHOTO - Carrie Fisher poses for cameras as she arrives at the European Premiere of Star Wars, The Force Awakens in Leicester Square, London, December 16, 2015. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/File Photo

http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20161230&t=2&i=1167165302&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=780&pl=468&sq=&r=LYNXMPECBT0UU
FILE PHOTO: Chewbacca, the eight-foot tall, 200 year-old 'wookie' character from 'Star Wars,' gives his acceptance speech in his own tongue upon receiving the MTV Movie Awards Lifetime Achievement from Carrie Fisher (L), who played Princess Leia Organa in the same movie, June 7, 1997. REUTERS/File Photo

By Lisa Richwine and Jill Serjeant | LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK

Tuesday's death of actor Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in "Star Wars," set off waves of remembrance among fans - but also speculation over her character's return in yet-to-be-filmed episodes.

Filmmakers are tapping advances in digital technology to resurrect characters after a performer dies, most notably in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." The film, in theaters now, features the return of Grand Moff Tarkin, originally played by a long-dead actor.

The trend has sent Hollywood actors in the here-and-now scrambling to exert control over how their characters and images are portrayed in the hereafter.

"Celebrities are increasingly involved in making plans to protect their intellectual property rights," said Mark Roesler, an attorney and chairman of CMG Worldwide, an agency representing celebrity estates. "They understand that their legacy will continue beyond their lifetime."

Roesler said at least 25 of his clients are engaged in actively negotiating the use of their or their loved ones' computer-generated images in movies, television or commercials. Employment contracts govern how they can be used in a particular film or commercial, while a performer's will can address broader issues.

Some actors or heirs worry that overexposure will tarnish a celebrity's image, Roesler said. Some explicitly rule out posthumous depictions involving sex or violence, while others focus on drugs or alcohol.

"We have seen people address marijuana," he said. "We've seen liquor addressed."

California law already gives heirs control over actors' posthumous profits by requiring their permission for any of use of their likeness. As technology has improved, many living actors there are more focused on steering their legacy with stipulations on how their images are used - or by forbidding their use.

Robin Williams, who committed suicide in 2014, banned any use of his image for commercial means until 2039, according to court documents. He also blocked anyone from digitally inserting him into a movie or TV scene or using a hologram, as was done with rapper Tupac Shakur at Southern California's Coachella music festival in 2012 - 16 years after his murder.

Virtual characters have been used when an actor dies in the middle of a film production, as when Universal Pictures combined CGI and previous footage for Paul Walker's role in 2015's "Furious 7" after Walker's 2013 death in a car crash.

But "Rogue One" broke new ground by giving a significant supporting role to a dead star. A digital embodiment of British actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994, reprised his role from the original 1997 "Star Wars" film as Tarkin.

Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) recreated Tarkin with a mix of visual effects and a different actor.

A Disney spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Princess Leia would appear in films beyond "Episode VIII," set for release in 2017. Fisher had wrapped filming for the next "Star Wars" episode before she died. She suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

Fisher had been expected to play a key role in the ninth installment of the sci-fi saga, due for release in 2019.

Fisher's attorney, Frederick Bimbler, did not return requests for information on any stipulations the actress may have made about use of her image.

Disney bought "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion. The two new films since released have sold some $2.7 billion worth of tickets and boosted sales of toys and other related merchandise.

Disney would need to negotiate "re-use fees" with Fisher's estate to resurrect her character for future films, said Mark Litwak, an entertainment attorney in Los Angeles.

The rights of actors' heirs are rooted in a 1985 California law requiring filmmakers to obtain permission from a celebrity's estate to use his or her image after death. The law was enacted after a campaign by the son of Dracula actor Bela Lugosi, a lawyer who objected to widespread use of his late father's image.

With today's movie technology opening up so many possible scenarios, actors' union SAG-AFTRA is lobbying for all states to enact protections on the use of celebrity images after they die.

Minnesota began considering such legislation this year following the death of music legend Prince, who was from Minneapolis.

"The issue for us is straightforward and clear: The use of performers' work in this manner has obvious economic value and should be treated accordingly," a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson said.

Celebrity deaths often spur big increases in sales of music and movies. Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley regularly top Forbes list of dead celebrities with annual earnings of tens of millions of dollars.

If Disney decides to resurrect Leia, the costs could go much higher than what it might have to pay her surviving family.

The technology and time involved in CGI recreations for major roles can make the prospect more costly than hiring even a first-tier actor.

"It's very expensive," Litwak said.

What about other characters in the blockbuster franchise?

James Earl Jones, who is 85, provided the menacing voice for Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, in an animated TV series and again in "Rogue One." An assistant to Jones declined to comment on whether any provisions are in place regarding use of his voice after his death.

A bigger question for film-makers and fans is whether the technology provides a realistic portrayal, Litwak said.

"Most people in the movie industry don't think it's quite there yet," he said. "It's amazing what they can do, but it's not as good as a real actor. It still seems a bit artificial."

Tarkin's resurrection in "Rogue One" sparked debate among fans over whether the portrayal was realistic, with some complaining it did not look human enough to be convincing.

"Does Disney want to have people scrutinizing how real that synthetic character is, rather than talking about the movie itself?" he asked about the prospect of Leia's return. "It would be a distraction."


(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Jill Serjeant in New York; editing by Tiffany Wu and Brian Thevenot)

[GeneChing]

For all of you here who know Donnie Yen and follow cinema in China, who are trying to explain Donnie as Chirrut to nooBs to him, share this. It says it all. Or at least, it'll befuddle them. ;)

Rogue One Chinese theme song " RESOLUTE DETERMINATION ",Sung by Jam Hsiao and piano Donnie Yen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbq3kFaZZGw

[-N-]

I've had one person comment that Jiang Wen's character reminded them of me. :p

Make that 2 people.

Saw the movie yesterday. Gene can be the Jiang/Baze stunt double.

Impressive movie. Entertaining and tons of action. Dark and gritty, unlike the more fairy tale and princess movies in the series.

Glad to see Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen have some decent roles in a mainstream western movie.

Kind of weird seeing Donnie playing a slightly less/different kind of bad ass than usual.

I actually liked the Baze character more.

Gene, we need a Rogue One sweepstakes with a Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen autographed copy of the movie :D

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-TpMXQojRA

[GeneChing]

This would have been better to post on Friday...


JANUARY 06, 2017 4:30am PT by Patrick Brzeski
Box Office: Will Apocalyptic Smog Hurt 'Rogue One' in China This Weekend? (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/box-office-will-apocalyptic-smog-hurt-rogue-one-china-weekend-961401)

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2016/12/rogue_one_still_6.jpg
Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm
'Rogue One'

As seasonal air pollution in dozens of Chinese cities hits dangerous levels, some film fans are expected to stay home.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story faces one final test in its mission for global box office dominance: China, the world's No. 2 movie market.

The wildly successful Disney film will have to contend with a foe more fearsome than Stormtroopers and TIE Fighters this weekend when it finally enters the Middle Kingdom, however. Rogue One's China opening could be hindered by Beijing's apocalyptic air pollution.

Over the past few weeks, heavy smog in northern China has caused hundreds of flights to be canceled as visibility dropped to as low as 150 feet in some locations. On Tuesday, at least two dozen cities issued "red alerts" for pollution, China's highest rating for hazardous air.

During the New Year holiday weekend, China's box office dropped 23 percent compared with the year-ago period, with revenue falling to 662 million Chinese yuan ($95.6 million) from 863 million yuan ($124.7 million) in 2016.

The decline came after a slowdown at China's box office, which began last spring. But some Chinese analysts believe the slip was considerably worsened by the hazardous air blanketing much of the country during the holiday.

Box office in heavily smog-affected regions in Northern China, such as Beijing and Tianjin, saw box office fall as much as 34 percent, year on year, according to local media reports. Clear-skied areas in the south experienced just a 13 percent slip, meanwhile. Families and couples, rather than groups of young friends, were the moviegoer categories most likely to shun cinemas and stay home out of concern for their health, the reports said.

On Friday evening, many neighborhoods in Beijing registered an air quality index of nearly 300. The U.S. government, via its embassy in Beijing, rates readings above 200 "very unhealthy," and 301 to 500 as "hazardous." Forecasters don't expect the air to clear until Sunday or Monday.

"Some people who would have checked out Rogue One are going to stay home with their air purifiers this weekend — there's no question," said a Beijing-based producer working for a Hollywood studio, who asked not to be named. "How many is harder to say. Sadly, many of us who have lived in Beijing a long time are just used to this."

Rogue One was designed with the Chinese market in mind. Since the original three films in the saga never were released theatrically in the country — and the much-derided prequels came out before the Chinese box-office boom had kicked off in earnest — the adventures of Luke and Leia remain a galaxy far, far away to many moviegoers there. Force Awakens grossed a healthy $124.1 million in China, but that's almost half the $240.1 million that Avengers: Age of Ultron earned there (more on the franchise's unique challenges in China).

With Rogue One, Disney has taken a big step toward bringing China into the fold by casting two of the country's top stars: Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, aka Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus. So far, the characters and their chemistry have been roundly embraced by international critics and fans alike — which is an especially good sign for the China market (for more on the two accomplished Chinese actors' backgrounds, see here).

Past Hollywood productions have seen their efforts to woo Chinese fans backfire. Social media users in the country are understandably skeptical of token castings of major Chinese stars in minor roles in Western movies. The brief appearances of Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing in Iron Man 3 (2013), for example, were widely derided as pandering. Chinese actress Angelababy appeared in a bigger part in Fox's Independence Day: Resurgence last summer, but many Chinese viewers still complained that her character was essentially dispensable.

Already, Rogue One seems to be getting a better reception. In an article released in late December, Global Times, an influential state-backed newspaper, wrote: "Although many Chinese netizens suspected that Jiang and Yen's inclusion in Rogue One was yet another pure market-driven choice, the two stars have much bigger roles in the film than previous attempts to include Chinese actors."

"Jiang and Yen do stand out," the paper added, quoting a fan.

Since its U.S. release on Dec. 16, the Star Wars spinoff has earned $829 million around the world. Whether the onscreen bromance of Baze and Chirrut can carry Rogue One through Beijing's noxious smog toward the $1 billion mark will be clear by Monday.

[GeneChing]

... Star Wars and China - It just doesn't seem to translate into Mandarin. :confused:



China Box Office: ‘Rogue One’ Wins Quiet Weekend (http://variety.com/2017/film/asia/china-box-office-rogue-one-wins-quiet-weekend-1201955274/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/star-wars-rogue-one-14.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
COURTESY OF DISNEY/LUCASFILM
JANUARY 8, 2017 | 04:47PM PT

The Chinese box office malaise of late 2016 continued into the new year as “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opened in China with a box office win that was far below that of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Releasing in an almost identical slot to its predecessor, “Rogue One” earned $32.2 million in its opening three-day weekend, according to data from Ent Group. A year ago, “The Force Awakens” enjoyed $53.2 million in its opening two day weekend, before going on to finish its run with $124 million.

Handled by China Film Group, “Rogue One” had a massive 89,000 screenings per day on Friday and Saturday. That was more than double the outings of second-placed romantic comedy “Some Like it Hot,” which achieved $11.7 million in its second weekend for a total of $53.4 million after 10 days.

“Rogue One” earned fractionally over $4 million of its total from IMAX screens. It opened on 381 IMAX screens, almost the entire Chinese park, having taken them over from “The Great Wall.”

Nationwide, “Rogue One” should have done better. It was the first major Hollywood title to open in the market in three weeks (after Chinese-U.S. coproduction “The Great Wall”,) it boasted genuinely popular and prominent Chinese elements in stars Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen and the number of available screens in China has grown by 30% since January 2016.

Negative factors included the unfamiliarity of Chinese audiences with the “Star Wars” franchise, compared that in with other territories, and the recent smoggy weather which kept many people indoors — although that was lifting on Sunday.

After improving in its second weekend, Jackie Chan’s “Railroad Tigers” crumbled in its third week. It placed third and earned $5.58 million for a 17-day cumulative of $87.2 million.

“The Great Wall” added $3.13 million in its fourth weekend. After 24 days it has hit a total of $160 million. It held up better than “See You Tomorrow,” the much-hyped comedy previously known as “The Ferryman.” That added just $1.07 million in eighth place in its third weekend for a 17-day cumulative of $67.6 million.

“Hacksaw Ridge,” allowed to play beyond the usual four week run, added$1.41 million in sixth place. It has a cumulative total of $57.6 million after 31 days.

New release, Chinese animated comedy, “Zhu Zhu Xia Zhi Ying Xiong Zhi Shiao Nian” (aka “GG Bond”) split the holdover titles and managed $2.53 million for fifth place.

[GeneChing]

Closing in on a billion worldwide - BOM (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars2016.htm) says "Worldwide: $983,319,734" today.

Donnie Yen talks about it a little in the Donnie Yen Exclusive Interview - xXx: Return of Xander Cage (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69211-xXx-The-Return-of-Xander-Cage&p=1299401#post1299401) interview I posted just now.


CULTURE
'ROGUE ONE' BECOMES 2016'S HIGHEST-GROSSING FILM IN THE U.S. (http://www.newsweek.com/rogue-one-becomes-2016s-highest-grossing-us-543234?rx=us)
BY TUFAYEL AHMED ON 1/16/17 AT 10:27 AM

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has displaced Finding Dory as the highest-grossing film released in 2016 in the U.S.

The Star Wars standalone film added $13.3 million to its box office run Friday through Sunday, and is set to surpass the $500 million mark by Monday, Box Office Mojo reported.

Its current haul stands at $498.8 million at U.S. multiplexes in just five weeks.

Disney Pixar’s animated Finding Dory, released last June, ended its theatrical run with $486 million in the U.S.

Either way, it’s good news for Disney, which boasts four of the five highest-grossing movies of 2016 at the U.S. box office.

Behind Rogue One and Dory is Captain America: Civil War, produced by Disney’s Marvel Studios, which took $408 million in 2016.

Disney’s live action adaptation of The Jungle Book was the fifth most popular film with a total of $364 million. (It ranked just slightly behind Universal’s animated hit The Secret Life of Pets, which grossed $368 million.)

Globally, Civil War outstripped both Dory and Rogue One with $1.15 billion. Rogue One is still playing worldwide, however, and could yet overtake the Marvel comic book movie by the end of its theatrical run. Its current total is $980 million.

Worth noting is that Rogue One is not performing as well in China as Disney and Lucasfilm’s previous Star Wars release, The Force Awakens, released in December 2015. That is despite featuring two Chinese actors—Ip Man’s Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen—and holding a premiere in Beijing to promote its homegrown stars.

Variety reported that in two weeks of release Rogue One has accumulated $52.7 million. The Force Awakens earned $53.2 million in its opening weekend and grossed $124 million in total in China.

Part of the reason Star Wars hasn’t been as formidable at the Chinese box office, one analyst told Hollywood trade publication TheWrap, is because the original trilogy released in the 1970s and ‘80s was not officially released in the market, so not as many cinemagoers are as familiar with George Lucas’ sweeping sci-fi saga. (The Star Wars prequel films released between 1999 and 2005 were, however, shown in China.)

“It’s polarizing Chinese audiences. Those who grew up with the prequel trilogy or maybe caught the original trilogy somehow are giving the film some face, but the newer generation of moviegoers—those that really help a film break out at the box office—just don’t care about these stories,” Jonathan Papish of China Film Insider said.

[GeneChing]

I've been saying this for years.


'Rogue One' Star Details Why Chinese Audiences Don't Connect With Star Wars (http://comicbook.com/starwars/2018/08/02/star-wars-rogue-one-donnie-yen-china-audiences/)
By PATRICK CAVANAUGH - August 2, 2018

The Star Wars saga is one of the biggest pop culture brands in the galaxy, but the films don't always find massive success in every corner of the world. In China, box office numbers from recent films have fallen short of the successes in other territories, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star Donnie Yen recently pointing out that the films are relatively new to the country, making it difficult for audiences to connect with the long-running storyline.

"Yeah, and that’s unfortunate," Yen shared with JoBlo in response to the saga's disappointments in China. "Star Wars - Chinese audiences didn’t grow up with Star Wars culture so, unfortunately, it didn’t work. Marvel is a lot easier to understand. Star Wars, there’s a whole universe out there. Marvel, from the costumes, to the music, to the idols, to the stars, it's much easier to close the gap between the film itself and the audience."

While there are clearly fans of the series in all parts of the world, the original trilogy of films wasn't made available in China until the '90s, likely a major reason why it never became a prominent cultural place for the films, as Yen pointed out.

The Star Wars films released by Disney have seen a sharp decline with each film that debuts. The Force Awakens earned $52 million in its opening weekend while Rogue One went on to earn $30 million. The Last Jedi took in $28 million in its opening weekend and, like in many other territories, Solo: A Star Wars Story took in the lowest earnings yet with only $9 million.

Earlier this year, marketing researcher James Li pointed out the difficulties the saga has had in China.

"Because of the complex characters and themes, the prequels, and all of the multi-generational layers that are part of the culture, or cult, of Star Wars, it's been hard for young Chinese filmgoers to get into the franchise," Li shared with The Hollywood Reporter.

Knowing that there are now ten total films in the franchise, enjoying a new film can be difficult for any film fan, with it being exceptionally difficult and seemingly not worth it for cultures that haven't grown up with the saga.

Interestingly, one of the reported reasons for Rogue One's success is specific to Chinese culture.

“For a lot of fans, the story of Rogue One made us think of our own country’s revolutionary history,” Chen Tao, who runs a Chinese Star Wars fan forum, pointed out. “A lot of characters in it were just like the Communist Party members who sacrificed themselves for the revolution.”

The next film in the series, Episode IX, has begun shooting and will land in theaters in December 2019.