“Chinese Film New Firestorm” World Summit was held at Beijing yesterday. The investors and producers of the new film Firestorm Andy Lau who set off to Beijing before Typhoon Usagi attacked Hong Kong and William Kong were present to have a dialogue on collaborative investing, nurturing newcomers, new ideas and identity of a production team.
When the two bosses Andy and William arrived at the summit, they started discussing about the current situation for Chinese films. When asked what was their standard for investing in a newbie film director, both of them agreed on whether to invest in a certain newbie film director depended on one’s talent and character. In addition, both of them had different methods in nurturing newbie film directors. William Kong expressed that he normally does not support the director with the intention of earning money, to be able to see their talent thus requested them to shoot a good film would be enough. Andy then revealed that only those who could not find any investor would approach him, his responsibility would be accompanying these newbie film directors to find their confidence and believing themselves.
At summit, when faced with the discussion that Chinese films are currently undergoing a “generation changing” period, the two bosses disagreed with this saying. William Kong expressed that although there were several films directed newbie directors doing well in the box office takings but it’s actually reflecting that the audience is getting younger as they are accepting wider and more ideas, whereas a film director’s capability is not solely judged on the box office figure, a suitable theme accommodating with the audience delight, more newbie film directors will be successful.
Andy exclaimed that newbie film directors and experienced film directors are as though in a love relationship, some could feel that their new girlfriend would forever be better than their ex-girlfriends, whether it’s really good would need time to tell, thus the rise of newbie film directors is a natural sight, but experienced film directors would forever have their status and influence.
When talked about their first collaboration to produce Firestorm, William quipped that Andy was “fooled” by him to invest in the film, Andy answered that in order for William to pay his fees, thus willing to be the main lead and producer of the film. Looking back, actually Cold Wars is the reason behind the collaboration of Andy and William, William said: “Initially when we asked Andy to cameo in Cold Wars, he agreed to help then we come to an agreement that he would be the main cast for the next film, he also need to invest and produce together with me. In the end, we were both moved after looking at the script of Firestorm.”
William exclaimed that he admired Andy’s taste on films. He quipped that it’s tough when he invested films in the past as he need to take care of the shooting sites and post productions, he need to be both red and black faces to crew members. “This film is more comfortable, I’m only the good guy, Andy is really fierce.” William revealed that in this collaboration, Andy is the “black face”. Andy sighed that in order to shoot a good film, he have to become a bad guy. He said: “Everybody is afraid to see me in the morning, because I need to monitor how much scenes we can shoot for the day. I scolded a lot in this film, but it’s difficult for an idol to scold people. Scold people in the morning, treat them meals in the afternoon, will scold them again in the next morning.”
Andy quipped and exclaimed that he know little on investing and budgeting, when he invest in films in the past, he would spend the money when he feel that it’s worth it, also used the longest to shoot the best film, that is an artist but not a film magnate. In this collaboration with William allowed Andy to learn a lot of things, need to be careful when comes to spending money.
When asked about his role as producer and actor, how he balance himself. Andy said that as a producer, his responsibility is to communicate well with the director and get the script ready before shooting, we have more than 10 edition of the script before shooting starts, but after shooting starts, everything will be handled by the director in order for him to show off his film directing abilities, then I would concentrate on my role as an actor.
At the press conference, the 3D trailer was also revealed for the first time, the exciting 3D gun showdown made everyone anticipating the film as just watching the trailer would made one feel the quick tempo of the film. The trailer includes a depressed Andy looking at a corpse, innocent teenage girl shot on the street, SDU carrying heavy weapons while giving chase to the criminals, there’s also car being hanged in mid-air, gun battles in the busy Central and cars overturn, the 3D effect is realistic, the fast story tempo would made audience nervous and catching their breathe.
Firestorm will be Mainland China first 3D police thriller, Andy revealed that initially William does not agree to 3D effect for the film, but Andy feel that it doesn’t matter as they can try to shoot the film with 3D technology at the first day, it will continue if the effect is good. William recognize the 3D effect of the film and invest more money for the 3D post production. Andy remembered that several major scenes took place at Central, but the rules stated that there could only be shooting for 6 hours in Central, thus to fasten the shooting procedure, a 1:1 Central was being built at the old airport, thus more money was pumped in.
There is also a surprise in the trailer as it was Andy’s own voice, there was a Mandarin dubbing, thus Firestorm would be yet another Mandarin original voice since last year’s A Simple Life. Andy revealed that he did all the dangerous scenes himself without any body double, this includes the scene where he jumps off from high building. He quipped: “Currently not much body double willing to replace me, all of them had went to take part in model competition, because the money earned is more when compared to be a body double.”
The film poster also looked grandeur, Andy standing in the middle leading a group of armed policemen, transforming Central into a battlefield.
When talked about the anticipation of the film, Andy expressed that he had done well what he needed to do, whereas William hope the audience will like the film.
In addition, the air stewardess sang praise of Andy as she wrote about her experience with Andy to Beijing on her weibo, she praised: “Andy is so perfect, whatever he does is so dignified and magnanimous, he’s so friendly when he speaks! Even his breathing is so heavenly king.”
Other than Andy, the other cast of Firestorm includes Yao Chen, Hu Jun, Gordon Lam and Ray Lui, the film is scheduled to hit the silver screen in December, but no fixed date yet.
Source: Wei Wen Po, Sing Tao News, Apple Daily News, Ming Pao, sohu.com, Sina.com, Macao Daily, news.mtime.com
Translated by: AndyLauSounds
