[28 .02.1999] Mission Impossible 2 budget
[28 .02.1999] Film Censorship in Finland - new law plan
[28 .02.1999] Update: John Woo book: JOHN WOO - THE FILMS
[28 .02.1999] Media Asia / Mega Star Web site
[28 .02.1999] The Killer Criterion DVD out of stock / deleted?

[11 .02.1999] Film pirates in Hong Kong
[11 .02.1999] John Woo and censorship
[11 .02.1999] John Woo films in TV

[08 .02.1999] Mission Impossible 2 rumors

[07 .02.1999] Windstalkers! John Woo directs WW II film?
[07 .02.1999] King's Ransom - some 'news'
[07 .02.1999] Media Asia DVD - feedback

John Woo & Mission Impossible 2 - budget

Feb 25 appledaily.com.hk newspaper online.

John Woo suggested to have budget 150 M but the studio disagrees and the max. limit would be 120 M. John has decided to shoot the movie around Australia and have less scenes in Europe. Oh well, 120 M should be enough to make a great movie. After all john Woo has done well with much less that that.

 

 

Film censorship in Finland - new law plans.

There are some plans to make new, much more reasonable film censorship law. National 'parliament' could start to discuss the law in this spring. And if we are lucky next millenium could bring us a whole new cinema and video releases including now totally banned Hard Boiled. Also many currently banned on video films, like Bullet in the Head and The Killer could be released on video, finally.
Read more

 

 

Forthcoming John Woo book: JOHN WOO - THE FILMS

Ken Hall is writing a John Woo book. The title will be JOHN WOO--THE FILMS, it will be published by McFarland & Co., forthcoming for 1999.

Ken Hall

 

 

John Woo & Mission Impossible 2 - still possible

From: Sidious <sidious@m-net.arbornet.org>
Well, John Woo showed up at the Mission Impossible 2 press conference yesterday  (Feb. 18) along with the other executives, so it looks like the man is still involved with the movie...

 

 

Media Asia / Mega Star Web site.

Media Asia / Mega Star Web Site. It has a list of released Media Asia DVDs, unfortunately it is not updated too often.

 

 

The Killer Criterion DVD out of stock.

I've seen many on-line stores telling that The Killer  Criterion DVD is out of stock. Also Amazon.com says that they are not sure about the availability. Rumors says that Criterion has no longer rights to distribute The Killer because Tai Seng bought the rights for distributing Media Asia / Universe DVD. So if you want The Killer DVD might be good idea buy Criterion DVD if you can still find it anywhere. Soon Media Asia disc might be the only on available. And it is said to cost $75 (unconfirmed price) because Tai Seng thinks we are ready to pay anything for this masterpiece. But they are wrong, aren't they? All the lawyers from Tai Seng, I don't say that your DVD is too expensive. Everyone can decide how much money they can afford to spend for one title. And many of them will decide not to buy it, believe me.

Criterion seems to have problems with Asian film releases. Now also Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai DVD is discontinued. Toho as rights holders to Seven Samurai were apparently unhappy with some footage included on the first pressings of the disc showing a demonstration of how some segments of the film were restored. Criterion will be reissuing a revised edition in the near future, minus the restoration footage and region-coded for Region 1 (the original one is not region-coded). You might get lucky and find a copy of the original pressing on the shelves at a retail outlet, but they've pretty much all been snapped up by now.

Both discs were on stock in Filmifriikki ( 299 FIM each)

 

John Woo and censorship.

Some John Woo films are classified for public viewing in Finland. Age category is for both theater and video but K18 films must be cut for video release. More info

FACE /OFF US 1997  Rating K16
BULLET IN THE HEAD HK 1990  Rating K18 (short vers. cut 5')
ONCE A THIEF / Zongheng sihai HK 1991  Rating K16
HARD TARGET US 1993 Rating K18 (Video cut)
THE KILLER HK 1989 Rating K18 (No video)
BROKEN ARROW US 1996 Rating K16
HARD BOILED HK 1992 Rating Banned

Finnish Board of Film Classification
Banned films 1920-1996 by Finnish Board of Film Classification

Melon Farmer's Video Hits Great informative British site

IN GERMANY
In Germany many John Woo films are heavily cut, including Hard Boiled, Bullet in the Head and A Better Tomorrow.

HARD BOILED cut ca. 12 minutes for 12
FACE/OFF Uncut, Rating 16
BULLET IN THE HEAD Cut (runs 98 min), Rating 18

Melon Farmer's: Germany Video Censorship

 

 

Swoop on pirates in cinemas.

CERI WILLIAMS
Copyright watchdogs will swoop on cinemas this Lunar New Year in search of pirate filming.

The Hong Kong Theatres Association said it had formed the team to prod the Government into making such recordings illegal and cracking down on the sale of pirated VCDs.

"To stop these recordings during the Chinese New Year holidays, an anti-piracy patrol team consisting of more than 100 people has been formed," a spokesman said.

"As a joint effort by theatre owners and distributors whose movies are shown, the team will patrol during all show times in all theatres."

Film superstars Jackie Chan and Stephen Chiau Sing-chi yesterday urged the banning of recording equipment in cinemas.

They asked Customs and Excise intellectual property investigation bureau chief Calvin Leung Ho to do more to control the problem.

 

South China Morning Star Wednesday February 10, 1999

 

 

John Woo films on TV (Finland).

Most of you can't see these channels but I must tell you this. John Woo films can be seen on TV in Finland! Original Once a Thief  will be seen on national TV station, A Better Tomorrow is on satellite / cable TV.

Once A Thief (Kerran varas, aina varas) (K-16)
Channel: Nelonen
Time: Tuesday Feb. 16 at 11.10 PM.
Version: letterboxed, Cantonese with Finnish subtitles. 104 min.

A Better Tomorrow
Channel: Cinema (Finnish) or Cinema (Swedish)
Time: Saturday Feb. 13 at 5.30 AM.

 

Chow Yun Fat ja John Woo yhdistävät jälleen taitonsa tässä tyylikkäässä trillerissä. Chow esittää humoristista ja sulavaa taidevarasta, joka operoi kahden ystävänsä kanssa. Kaikki kolmikon jäsenet ovat orpoja, joiden kasvattaja opetti heidät pikku rikollisiksi. Nyt on kuitenkin kyseessä isot rahat ja kannattava taulujen varastaminen. Jim, Sherry ja Joe asuvat Seinen varrella asuntolaivassa. Sherry haluaisi jo lopettaa keikat ja naida Joen, Joe haluaisi tehdä vielä viimeisen keikan ja Jim on ihastunut Sherryyn. Nizzalainen monsieur Le Bond tekee tarjouksen: Côte d’Azurista pitäisi varastaa taulu, joka on piilossa eräässä linnassa. Sherry aavistaa pahinta, mutta Jim käy heti toimeen. Joe liittyy joukkoon, mutta edessä on todellinen seikkailu, joka on henkeäsalpaava ja – hillitön
Nelonen about Once a Thief.

 

 

Mission Impossible 2 rumor.

Following rumor was posted to alt.asian-movies. This thing was seen in Dark Horizons. Sydney and Melbourne are shooting locations, that's why these places were mentioned here. I think we better wait and see and not to get shocked. There was also rumors  about how long John Woo is in Face/Off project but as we know he did finish that film.

"Mission: Impossible 2: One very hot piece of gossip has
been swirling around the film circles late this week in both
Sydney and Melbourne. Rumour is that Director John Woo ("Face/Off") has possibly left the project just weeks before shooting was set to begin. 'Shape' heard the rumour on several occasions and one of his contacts confirms its not "Industry scuttlebutt". In any case,
if this is true then a press release would likely be issued next week."
Dark Horizons (Feb 5-8)

New Zealand TV reports that mid-late February will be the start date of production of MI2 in Sydney, Australia. Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, John Woo and the rest of the cast & crew of this film sequel are about to start filming in Spain for a few weeks, and then will move on to the FOX Studios complex in Sydney for an estimated six months to film the majority of the movie.  
Dark Horizons (Jan 11-15)

 

Windstalkers! John Woo directs WW II film?.

MC4's Hong Kong Movie Page told some more about this WWII film by United Artists.

United Artists wants to woo Woo

United Artists has emerged from its hibernation to pick up John Rice and Joe Batteer's WWII action/drama pitch ``Windtalkers,'' which will be developed as a directing vehicle for John Woo.

Rice and Batteer will pen the screenplay, a story of an Anglo GI assigned to protect a Navajo whose inscrutable native language is used as code in radio transmissions to confound the Japanese.

The project at UA will be handled by president Lindsay Doran and Asked why he picked up the project, Kleeman responded, ``Like everybody else in town we were thinking, 'Wouldn't it be great to be in business with John Woo and Terence Chang?'

``It's a great pitch, and the story is a kind of a secret history of WWII. It's not about events and battles we all learned in school. It's about events that are rarely spoken of,'' said UA executive VP Jeff Kleeman.

Rice and Batteer last worked together on ``Blown Away,'' MGM's 1994 actioner starring Jeff Bridges.

 

 

"King's Ransom" 'news'

These are just some rumors, no confirmed information if these people will be in King's Ransom or not. I don't know about Diaz or Bullock but Bratt Pitt is good actor anyway. Also about the schedule, shooting really could start late autumn unless john Woo decides to make Windstalkers after Mission Impossible 2. I know people at United Artists want John Woo but I have not heard any word from the man himself if he's interested..

 

The Apple Daily reports that Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz (or Sandra Bullock) are linked to the John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat project.  Given everyone's schedule, this movie is, at the very least, 9 months away from shooting so these names will probably change before the movie start shooting (if it ever gets that far).

Info: MC4's Hong Kong Movie Page news Jan 24 1999

 

Media Asia feedback

Also this info came from MC4's Hong Kong Movie Page. So if you are unhappy with Media Asia DVD releases you can send your comments to address mentioned above.

Media Asia has a really bad reputation in the United States.  I explained some of the problems (substandard prints sent to other companies, the new DVDs) to Bey Logan.  Logan understood my concern and he admitted he knew little about the technical side of things.  He has worked on the extras and booklets (he was responsible for getting the Kwan Tak-hing clips on the "Once Upon A Time In China" DVDs).  Logan suggests that everyone who would like to offer Media Asia constructive criticism can write them at this address:
 

  YC Chu
Media Asia
412 - 416, 4/F, World Commerce Centre
11 Canton Road
Kowloon, Hong Kong

 

Please be courteous and respectful with your comments.