Sino Silver Screen: Wong Kar-wai to Produce New Series 'Blossoms'; 'Charlie’s Angels' Out Nov 15

This post comes courtesy of our content partners at China Film Insider.

Wong Kar-wai to Produce Drama Series ‘Blossoms’ 

Jettone Films, a film production company owned by Wong Kar-wai (pictured at top), will produce a drama series named Blossoms, according to an announcement published on the company’s official WeChat account. Shooting will start in 2020 with Wong Kar-wai as executive producer. Based on a novel of the same name by writer Jin Yucheng, the story of Blossoms is set in Shanghai and follows the lives of a group of characters from 1960s to 1990s. Blossoms will be the first drama series produced by Jettone for the digital streaming market. The announcement also mentioned that the show will premiere on Tencent Video.

Read more on Jettone.

‘Charlie’s Angels’ Set for Nov 15 China Release

Produced by Columbia Pictures, the 2019 version of Charlie’s Angels has been scheduled to hit Chinese theaters on Nov 15, the same day as its North American release. The film follows stars Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinksa as they embark on a dangerous mission to fight an agency looking to spread its evil ideals across the globe. Two Chinese films, Somewhere Winter and Huntdown, and Italian film The Legend of 1900, will be released in China on the same day.

Read more on Beijing News.

Beijing to Host First Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Retrospective

Presented by Beijing-based company Linxiang Wenhua, China’s first retrospective of the Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi will take place in Beijing from Nov 1 to 3. The director will attend all screenings of the retrospective, and the lineup includes his six short films and four features, such as Happy Hour and Asako I & II. In 2015, Hamaguchi’s film Happy Hour was selected for the main competition section of the Locarno International Film Festival, where the four leading actresses of the film were awarded Best Actress for their roles. His 2018 film Asako I & II also entered the main competition of Cannes Film Festival.

Read more on Mtime.

Meet the Chinese Partner Behind ‘Why Women Kill’

American drama series Why Women Kill: Season 1 just won over audiences around the world. Produced by Imagine Entertainment and CBS Television Studios, the show starring Lucy Liu scored a 94 percent "Certified Fresh" audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and 65 percent from critics. On IMDb and China’s Douban, it scored 8.2/10 and 9.3/10, respectively. What many people may not realize is that Chinese company CMC (China Media Capital) had a hand in backing the show, a relatively rare example of a Chinese company tapping into TV production in the US as compared to the increasingly common model of Sino-Hollywood collaborations in film co-productions.

CMC has been a shareholder of Imagine Entertainment since March 2016, and in July 2017 Imagine Entertainment partnered with Hong Kong-based TVB, which CMC also owns a stake in, to found a joint venture to focus on American drama series. TVB, putting USD 100 million into the company, will own the distribution rights of all the original projects in the Greater China region. Why Women Kill is one of the recent projects to come out of this joint venture. Sources familiar with CMC also said that the company and TVB are considering a local remake of the hit show.

Read more on Duojiaowenyu.

Taylor Swift Joins in Alibaba’s Gala for 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

Taylor Swift will perform at Alibaba’s 11.11 Countdown Gala on Nov 10 in Shanghai. The live show opens the company’s biggest shopping event – 11.11 Global Shopping Festival – and will mark the first time that Swift has played in China in four years. Apart from Swift, international celebrities such as A-listers Nicole Kidman, Mariah Carey, as well as sports star Kobe Bryant, and several local stars will also participate in the show.

Read more on hxnews.

READ: 5 Easy Ways to Resist Single's Day Consumer Brainwashing

Chinese-American Family Drama ‘The Farewell’ Scores China Release

The 2019 Chinese-American family drama film The Farewell has been scheduled for Chinese release on Nov 22. Based on director Lulu Wang’s own family story, the film follows a young Chinese-American woman Billi and her family who, upon learning her grandmother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, travel to China to see her with the excuse of attending a cousin’s wedding. Starring Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, and Tzi Ma, the film was released in North America this summer and usurped Avengers: Endgame for the year’s biggest per-theater average at the local box office.

Read more on The Beijing News.

Sophie Marceau Named Ambassador for the 2nd Hainan Island Int’l Film Festival

On Oct 25, Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) hosted a press conference in Beijing, unveiling this year’s festival lineup, including a variety of screening sections and special events. This year, HIIFF will launch the Golden Coconut competition section and showcase selected films from all around the world through eight themed programs. The festival will also add more industry events this year, including a film market, a project market, and a conference to promote scenic spots for shooting. Additionally, Sophie Marceau was announced as this year’s festival ambassador.

Read more on HIIFF.

Looking for some art? There's a huge line-up of exhibitions this weekend from the likes of 
Sarah Lucas, Anish Kapoor, Robert Capa, Alphonse Mucha, and Chen Tianzhuo.

Images: slashfilm.com, Douban, courtesy of China Film Insider