Climbers

[GeneChing]

Jackie, Jacky, Jing Boran & Z? Wow, I'm already predicting this FTW for Spring Festival 2020.

Filmart: Jackie Chan, Wu Jing to Star in Chinese Mountain Climbing Epic (Exclusive)
1:00 AM PDT 3/17/2019 by Patrick Brzeski


Jackie Chan (left), Wu Jing

Tentatively titled 'Climbers,' the film tells the real-life story of the first Chinese mountaineers to summit Mount Everest.

China's biggest action stars are teaming to conquer Mount Everest.

Hong Kong legend Jackie Chan and Chinese box-office champion Wu Jing are set to co-star in an epic action film about the first Chinese mountaineers to summit the world's tallest peak.

Tentatively titled Climbers in English, the pic will be directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Daniel Lee and produced by Shanghai Film Group.

The film will dramatize the real-life expedition of Chinese climbers Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo and Qu Yinhua, who made a historic ascent up Mount Everest's North Ridge in 1960. The Chinese team was the first to successfully climb Everest's north side, which is known to be especially perilous. The trio famously left a small statue of Chairman Mao atop the summit before returning midway down the mountain to rescue a fourth member of their team who was unable to complete the climb.

Alongside Wu and Chan, the two other climbers in the group will be played by popular young actor Jing Boran (Monster Hunt, Us and Them) and television star Hu Ge (Chinese Paladin, 1911). Actress Zhang Ziyi rounds out the star-studded cast as a Chinese meteorologist who assists the mission.

Climbers appears to fit the nationalistic action-hero persona both Wu and Chan have cultivated in their recent blockbuster film work. A minor star of Hong Kong action cinema for nearly two decades, Wu broke out as a huge A-list name in Mainland China in 2017 thanks to the historic success of the military action flick Wolf Warrior 2, which he wrote, directed and starred in. The film earned $870 million and remains China's biggest blockbuster of all time. Wu returned to the screen in February as the star of The Wandering Earth, China's first sci-fi blockbuster, which has earned $655 million to date.

Climbers is currently shooting in China and is expected to be released either on China's patriotic National Day holiday or during Chinese New Year in 2020.

Karen Chu contributed to this story.

[GeneChing]

China’s ‘Rambo’ and Jackie Chan co-star Wu Jing returns to filming after leg injury
The 44-year-old Beijing-born actor and director of Wolf Warrior has been plagued by injuries since he was a boy
Jackie Chan’s co-star in Climbers has returned to the film set having spent two months in hospital
Unus Alladin
Published: 5:50pm, 24 Mar, 2019


Wu Jing in Wolf Warrior 2. Photo: Handout

China’s top martial arts star Wu Jing went straight from his hospital bed to the set of his next movie Climbers, having spent two months overseas recovering from his latest injury.
Wu, whose Wolf Warrior franchise broke all-time box office records on the mainland, is co-starring with Hong Kong martial arts legend, Jackie Chan, in the mountain epic, Climbers, which tells the story of the first Chinese mountaineers to conquer Mount Everest in 1960.
The 44-year-old Beijing-born Wu, who starred with American martial arts hero, Scott Adkins, in the patriotic war movie, Wolf Warrior, has rejoined his film crew in China to continue shooting his latest venture after being seen by netizens in a wheelchair at the airport on the mainland recently. His public relations team said he had been seriously injured during filming of Climbers and had emergency treatment abroad but went “straight back to his film crew after returning home”.


American martial arts hero Scott Adkins co-starred with Wu Jing in Wolf Warrior. Photo: Handout

Wu began shooting Climbers in January, experiencing extreme cold as he climbed the 5,254-metre Gangshika snow peak in Qinghui, China.



It’s not known exactly how Wu had injured his leg but the martial arts star has been pictured in crutches or in a wheelchair more frequently over the years as he struggles with a series of injuries. He even appeared in crutches at his wedding to TV presenter Xie Nan in 2014.


Wolf Warrior poster. Photo: Handout

Since he was six years old, he has been injured either while learning martial arts in Beijing or at the film set, a similar scenario to “his older brother” martial arts superstar Jet Li, who has also been plagued by injuries and is recovering from hyperthyroidism.


Wu Jing is wheeled by airport staff after having leg surgery. Photo: Sina Weibo


Wu Jing in crutches. Photo: Weibo

And recently he talked about his misfortunes in a TV interview aired on March 8, when he revealed to the host that he can obtain a “disability certificate” in China owing to his many injuries. He talked about going through pain and suffering over the years.
Jet Li photo with daughters paints contrasting picture to Jackie Chan’s turbulent family life
He has shown absolute dedication to his craft as an actor and director, rushing back to rejoin his film crew for Climbers.


Climbers poster. Photo: Handout

“I was very determined to succeed. I grew up learning about pain and experiencing a lot of pain. If you want to continue, you need to accept [the pain] and continue,” said Wu, who also starred in the Chinese sci-fi adventure The Wandering Earth which was released last month. He said it was only through such hardship could he succeed as an actor and film director.


Wu Jing on the set of Climbers. Photo: Sina Weibo

Chinese blockbuster The Wandering Earth may break new ground worldwide, but may not go far in Hong Kong
Nicknamed China’s Rambo by his fans, Wu’s Wolf Warrior 2 released in 2017, which he also directed, became China’s biggest-ever grossing film, earning US$850 million in China alone. Wu’s The Wandering Earth was also a smash hit, becoming the second biggest grossing movie of all time in China, grossing US$600 million. Climbers is set to be released on National Day in China this year.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: China star Wu Jing back on set after injury

THREADS
Wu Jing
Climbers
The Wandering Earth
Wolf Warrior 2

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

Jackie, Jacky, Jing Boran & Z? Wow, I'm already predicting this FTW for Spring Festival 2020.

Well I was wrong. This is premiering on SEP 30 worldwide with some U.S. IMAX presentations somewhere, but the WellGoUSA site doesn't list where yet; it just redirects to Fandango.

[GeneChing]

China's 2019 Box Office Turns to Growth Thanks to Anniversary Blockbusters
5:28 AM PDT 10/14/2019 by Patrick Brzeski


Courtesy of Edko Films
'The Climbers '

Three propagandistic tentpoles — 'My People, My Country,' 'The Pilot' and 'The Climbers' — have together earned nearly $850 million in China over the past two weeks.
For much of 2019, China's movie box office has flirted with its first full-year decline in decades. But a spate of local blockbusters released over the People's Republic of China's 70th anniversary holiday on Oct. 1 have nudged the market back into growth mode.

As of Sept 30, China's box office was down 3 percent for the year, totaling $6.65 billion compared with $6.86 billion by the same time in 2018. A series of aggressive censorship actions in Beijing targeting the country's own would-be movie hits has weighed on China's content-hungry theatrical sector throughout the year.

By the end of Sunday, Oct. 14, the market was up 3.9 percent, however, having climbed to $7.52 billion for the year, according to box office analyst Artisan Gateway.

Driving the turnaround over the intervening two weeks was the successful launch of a trio of patriotic Chinese blockbusters, all of them produced to commemorate the nation's highly symbolic anniversary. Together, the three titles earned nearly $850 million.

Leading the way was My People, My Country, a propagandistic anthology drama film of seven shorts, each of them telling a story commemorating a different moment of glory since the PRC's establishment in 1949. Produced by state-backed Huaxia Film Distribution, the film had climbed to $361.5 million by Sunday. The film's seven segments were directed by a collection of China's most in-demand filmmakers, including Chen Kaige, Zhang Yibai, Guan Hu, Xue Xiaolu, Xu Zheng, Ning Hao and Wen Muye.

Bona Film Group's The Captain, something like a Chinese version of Tom Hanks' Sully, has ranked first at the box office for much of the past week, steadily gaining on My Country, My People. Directed by Andrew Lau and starring Zhang Hanyu, the film is a re-creation of the 2018 Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633 incident, in which a Chinese commercial jet's windshield broke mid-flight, forcing the pilot to execute a heroic emergency landing. The movie has totaled $343 million to date.

Coming in third for the holiday stretch was Shanghai Film Group's The Climbers, which stars local action hero Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior 2) and chronicles the first real-life Chinese ascent of Mr. Everest. The Climbers' box office total has reached $138 million, a slight disappointment for a Wu Jing film, but still a healthy sum.

DreamWorks Animation's Abominable also was hoping to do big business during the lucrative holiday corridor but was largely left behind. Despite featuring a China-linked story and being co-produced by Shanghai-based Pearl Studio, the film fizzled in the Middle Kingdom, earning just $14.8 million in its first two weeks.

Hollywood will be back in the China market in a bigger way Friday with the release of Arg Lee and Will Smith's Gemini Man. Although the film has been savaged by critics stateside, hopes are high that it can make up some of its hefty $140 budget in China. Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group has a 25 percent equity stake in the film, and Alibaba has a 5 percent piece. The Skydance and Paramount film opened in third in the U.S. with an estimated $20.5 million, for a worldwide $59.5 million total including 58 international markets.

Disney's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil will open head-to-head with Gemini Man in China on Friday. The first Maleficent film earned $48 million in the Middle Kingdom five years ago.

THREADS
Climbers
Chollywood rising