"Encouraged by the success of Tsui Hark's "Seven Swords" and the warm reception to its coming kung fu blockbuster "Dragon Tiger Gate," Mandarin Films will be concentrating its efforts mainly on actioners in the coming year. First in the pipeline is an unnamed contemporary crime actioner that will reunite "Dragon Tiger Gate" director Wilson Yip and action director and star Donnie Yen. Budget projections are awaiting cast confirmation but Mandarin Films chairman Raymond Wong estimates that it will be within the $6 million to $7 million range..." (full details)
"Moritz Bleibtreu has signed on to star in "Free Rainer," the new feature from Hans Weingartner ("The Edukators"). Bleibtreu will play the title role of a television executive frustrated with producing garbage who decides to start a broadcast revolution. Gathering a group of disciples around him, he successfully hacks the code for TV set-top ratings boxes and manipulates the ratings figures so that intelligent television is hugely successful and trash TV fails miserably. This leads to a cultural revolution but also to a backlash from the broadcast powers-that-be..." (full details)
"Spanish star Elena Anaya ("Van Helsing") will star in the sensual art house drama "The Floating World," written and directed by John Winter, which Lightning Entertainment is selling in Cannes. Set in the Australian outback, the film centers on a woman (Anaya) whose mysterious past is gradually revealed through a matrix of truth, lies and sexual fantasies..." (full details)
