From James Wan to Park Chan-wook to Hideo Nakata, Asian directors shine in Hollywood.
JAMES Wan has basically sealed his mark as the go-to director for horror flicks with the success of scary features such as Insidious, Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Conjuring.
Besides Malaysia-born Wan, there are several Asian directors known for films that explore horror, violence and other dark themes who are breaking into the Hollywood mainstream, with varying degrees of success.
Acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook is best known for brutal vengeance-themed films such as 2003's Oldboy, which is being remade this year by American director Spike Lee in a movie starring Josh Brolin. But he has also made a vampire horror, Thirst, which was released in 2009, and directed one short in the Asian horror anthology, Three... Extremes (2004).
Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Park made his first English-language film this year, the suspenseful psychological drama Stoker, starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman. It received generally positive reviews but several critics wondered if it might have been a better film if Hollywood had allowed Park the full creative control he is used to back home.
Kim Jee-woon, who has explored horror in Korean films such as The Quiet Family (1998) and A Tale Of Two Sisters (2004), made his Hollywood debut this year by directing The Last Stand, the comeback vehicle for ageing action star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It made some Terminator fans happy, but managed only a sub-par showing at the box office.
A third acclaimed South Korean director, Bong Joon-ho, is known for the dark drama Mother (2009) and the science-fiction horror monster movie The Host (2006).
He is about to unveil his English-language science-fiction tale Snowpiercer, an adaptation of a French graphic novel that will feature big-name Hollywood actors (Chris Evans) and Korean ones (Song Kang-ho).
The movie earned more than US$20mil (RM63mil) when it opened in South Korea recently, one of the country's biggest box-office debuts.
Although many Asian horror directors are well regarded in Hollywood, the American film industry often remakes its own English-language versions with non-Asian directors.
Exceptions to this include Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu.
Nakata was hired to remake an English-language version of The Ring 2 (2005), a sequel to the 2002 Hollywood re-imagining of his cult hit Ringu. Shimizu is the creator of the Japanese Ju-on films that inspired the English-language The Grudge franchise, the first two films of which he directed in 2004 and 2006. - The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News NetworkTHE ACTOR GIVES THE REASON WHY HE LEFT THE FIFTY SHADES OF GREY PROJECT.
Charlie Hunnam has opened up about his departure from Universal's Fifty Shades Of Grey adaptation for the first time.
Well, sorta.
"I am doing good. I am just really concentrating on work. It's been a really busy time," Hunnam told E! News at the second annual "Hogs For Heart" benefit in Burbank, California.
"I have had some family stuff going on so just trying to stay focused and stay positive and keep trying to do a good job at work and be with my family and stay positive."
The actor's father passed away last May, which he suggested may have been a factor in his decision to skip out on playing Christian Grey.
With Sons Of Anarchy production recently wrapped, Hunnam plans on putting family first.
"I've got some family stuff I have to tend to. So when I wrap the show, I am going to go to Britain and see my people and then I have a film that I am doing with Guillermo (del Toro)," Hunnam added.
"So I am going to go and do that and concentrate on the final seasons of Sons."
When Hunnam was attached to star in the adaptation of E.L. James' bestselling erotic novel, he was scheduled to begin shooting three weeks after SOA wrapped. Instead, it sounds like he'll be taking some time off before beginning his next project: Legendary Pictures' haunted houst thriller Crimson Peak. -- ReutersAND WE ALL THOUGHT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM TO COME BACK ...
Stephen Lang, who played the villainous Colonel Quaritch in James Cameron's Avatar, is set to reprise his role in three upcoming sequels despite (spoiler alert!) having been killed off in the original movie, multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.
Lang's character died when Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) shot him twice through the chest with her father's bow.
Cameron and his team of screenwriters (Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Shane Salerno) will now have to come up with a creative way to explain Quaritch's return to the sci-fi franchise.
After Avatar, Lang went on to star in Fox's big-budget series Terra Nova as another ruthless military figure, Commander Taylor. Lately, he has had a recurring role on USA's In Plain Sight.
Lang, who got his start playing gossip hound Freddy Lounds in Michael Mann's seminal serial killer movie Manhunter, is represented by Innovative Artists. -- Reuters
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