Tonyjaa 会见
甄子丹Tony
recently when to China to meet with legendary director, action
director, and star: Lau Kar Leung (36th Chamber of Shaolin, Heroes of
the East, Martial Club etc.), to discuss a possible role for him in
LKL‘s upcoming movie Heroes of Shaolin.
Tony is interested, but had to see which role he would be playing first
- Which would be as a bad guy..
After the meeting with LKL, Tony also had a meeting with HK action star
Donnie Yen (SPL, Flash Point etc.) at the launch party for the The
Weinstein Company‘s new asian film fund..
SHOWDOWN AT THE CHINA CLUB : Action idols collide at launch party for TWC’s Asian Film Fund. 
The setting was the exclusive China Club, on a high floor of the Old
Bank Of China building. This venue, owned by Anglophile, entrepreneur
and bon vivant David Tang, has hosted its fair share of high calibre
star power, and, on this particular evening, we were proud to see
gathered there the brightest lights of the current generation of Asian
action idols. Tony
Jaa,
Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse… It felt like a throw down could go down at
the drop of a champagne glass.
The occasion was the launch of The Weinstein Company’s new Asian film
fund, a major financial resource that allows the company to invest in
the region’s entertainment industry at an unprecedented level. The week
saw TWC honcho Harvey Weinstein in town for a round of high level
meetings, crowned by our China Club gathering.
Guest of honour was undoubtedly Thai action ace Tony Jaa, with whom we
enjoyed a huge success, theatrically and on DVD, with The Protector
(AKA Tom Yum Goong). We’re eternally grateful to Tony for helping get
the label off to a flying start, and we look forward to bringing him
back to North American audiences in his directorial debut, Ong Bak 2.
Tony was en route from a martial arts award show in the Chinese border
town of Shenzen, and made a special detour to celebrate the fund launch
with us. Also on hand was local hero Donnie Yen, whose high impact cop
socky Flashpoint we will soon be bringing to you. In his opening
remarks, Harvey Weinstein quipped that “the good news is Tony and
Donnie are going to fight, the bad news is that they’re going to fight
me!” Instead, Jaa and Yen were all smiles, and expressed a keen
interest in finding a suitable project on which to cooperate. We also
managed to round up Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue, two of the stars of
another forthcoming Dragon Dynasty release, Invisible Target. (Sadly,
the third lead from the film, Jaycee Chan, was away promoting his new
film, The Drummer, in Taiwan.) Nic made a rare public appearance with
his wife Cecilia Cheung, who Stephen Chiau fans will remember fondly
for her debut in his King Of Comedy. (The couple are proud parents of a
beautiful baby boy.) I was happy to see one of my oldest friends in the
business, Simon Yam. (I say ‘oldest’, even though he never seems to
age, damn him…) Simon starred, alongside Donnie Yen, in our very first
Dragon Dynasty release, Kill Zone, and will soon be seen in our
forthcoming release of Johnnie To’s PTU. Another old mate, Michael
Wong, landed his helicopter on the roof (at least, that’s what he told
the ladies…) to join the fun. (Michael had a supporting role in another
early Dragon Dynasty hit, Seven Swords.) There were also some beauties
among us beasts, with the lovely ladies present including actress/model
Ankie Black, singing stars (and budding actresses) Rosanne and Race
Wong (the artists formerly known as 2R), actresses Eugenia Yuan and
Josie Ho (with husband Conroy Chan in tow), singer/model Celina Horan
(daughter of Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow bad guy Roy Horan) and singer
Kelly Fu (looking deadly in red). Also on hand were some of the
uber-producers without whom none of the above would have the chance to
shine, including Media Asia honcho Peter Lam, Celestial Pictures chief
Andre Morgan, Fortissimo partners Michael Werner and Wouter Barendrecht
and one of the true pioneers of international quality Asian
entertainment, Andre Morgan. TWC was represented by EVP for Asia David
Lee, our head of production Michael Cole and my humble self.
As the event wound down, Harvey Weinstein and various other high flyers
decamped for another party being held across town by Michelle Yeoh.
Those die hards who remained at China Club engaged in a spontaneous
‘sing off’ between two rival tables, orchestrated by Hong Kong music
maestro Howard McCrary. This un-American Idol revealed some hitherto
hidden singing (and rapping) talents. The survivors then relocated to
the now empty main hall of the China Club, where Howard took to the
grand piano to allow the likes of Michael Wong and Celia Horan to bust
loose their pipes and work the room. Though naysayers continually
announce the death of Hong Kong cinema, I felt that we had enough star
power and good energy in one room to launch a whole new wave of Asian
action cinema. If our combined efforts can’t achieve this, it won’t be
for want of trying.
(My thanks to David Tang, sadly in absentia on the evening, for his
usual extraordinarily generous hospitality. My thanks also to my long-suffering former assistant, Helen Cord, for her efforts in putting the event together.)
