Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen talks with Kung Fu Cinema about what he's been up to and why he's not too bent out of shape with the cuts made to "Hero", or rather how Harvey Weinstein sweet-talked him into being OK with the cuts. Also, Donnie spills the release date for "Twins Effect". Coming out June in Hong Kong, woohoo!

Jet Li
Rumor has it that Jet is signed on to do a Disney movie, "Labor Day" after "Danny the Dog".

The Matrix: Reloaded
Interviews with Matrix stars about filming, action stunts and working with the Wachowski (sp?) Brothers, or The Boys as they call them.

MonkeyPeaches has a small interview with Yuen Woo Ping about the Matrix Sequels.

Danny the Dog
Amiteur pictures from set of Danny the Dog

Jet Li
Vote for Jet at the MTV movie awards for Best Fight Scene.

Rage (Fureur)
New martial arts/French fusion movie Rage with "Brotherhood of the Wolf" star Samuel LeBihan and Yu Nan, featuring Muay Thai kickboxing.

Cool Links
ZoneAsia for Asian actor wallpapers.

Buddha Fist, martial arts information database.

The Hulk
Trailer to Ang Lee's The Hulk.

Andy Lau
According to MonkeyPeaches, Andy Lau may lead next Zhang Yimou martial arts film. It says:
"Zhang Yimou has contacted Andy Lau for his untitled upcoming martial-art film and yesterday Andy Lau confirmed that Zhang Yimou had promised to tailor a role for him and he was expecting the script from Zhang Yimou (in May). Based on the information we know so far, this project will not be the sequel of HERO but a brand new story and will most likely be set in another timeframe. Beijing New Picture and Hong Kong's Edko will once again work with Zhang Yimou on this film. Zhang Ziyi may also be cast because Zhang Yimou has said working with Zhang Ziyi again was out of question. Rumor suggests she will play a blind warrior. However, it is still too early to tell who will join the cast and what the story is really about."

Misc. News
Jet Li and Fann Wang are up for MTV awards for their fight scenes in "Cradle 2 the Grave" and "Shanghai Knights", respectively. Um, what about Mark Dacascos and Donnie Yen? (arms crossed, foot tapping unapprovingly)

The Twins Effect
New teaser trailers on EMG website and photos at MonkeyPeaches.

Yuen Wo Ping
Master Yuen has been propositioned by Dreamworks to do action choreography for a new comic-to-movie project, "Master of Kung Fu". But Monkeypeaches is saying that it's going to be called "Hands of Shang Chi". Yuen just wrapped up work on "Kill Bill" and the "Matrix" sequels (or would it be Matrices? Nevermind).

Jean-Claude Van Damme
JCVD talks about sequels, new projects and why he still rocks hard. Or at least why he still thinks he does. Kung Fu Cinema semi-exclusive.

Kill Bill
New photos of David Carrodine. Yeah, he might be old and sage-like but he's still no Bruce Lee.

Joe Eigo
The newbie already has his own website, theme music and all.

Around the World in 80 Days
New photos at Jackie Chan's website.

Jet Li
If you're in Australia, good news! There will be a Jet Li movie marathon, April 26 in Melbourne, to celebrate Jet's 40th birthday.

Jackie Chan Projects
Jackie's film "The Medallion", aka Highbinders, is going to be heavily cut, according to Monkey Peaches. The movie has been on the shelf for about a year and is apparantly still in editing. Read more here.

Also you can read entries in Jackie Chan's "Around the World in 80 Days" diary here.

Movie News
Hero and Infernal Affairs swept the Hong Kong film awards. Read the Reuters story here.

New Talent
Kung Fu Cinema has an exclusive interview with newcomer Joe Eigo. He is one of the most recent additions to Jackie Chan's much lauded stunt team.

Hall of Shame
They are trying to bring back Van Damme, with a very unnecessary sequel to "Streetfighter" this time with a Brit pop star to accompany. Read more here.

Steven Seagal is in talks in Beijing for new Ghengis Khan movie. First Hollywood is trying to do Atilla, then Alexander the Great, what's with all these larger than life historical figure reprisals?

And last but not least, we have Chow Yun Fat talking about Bulletproof Monk and why he prefers romantic roles to action. I'd say he should have decided that before taking this role.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Not too much news today. With the sad news of Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung and "Hero" not winning the Oscar, the news outlets havent been buzzing as much as usual. However, the show must go on. Since "Hero" is out of the running and who nows when we'll ever get to see it released, perhaps Jet Li will finally have a chance at critical acclaim with his gritty, humanistic role in "Danny the Dog". Hopefully having Master Yuen on his team will increase his chances as well. Im crossing my fingers for him.

Also, you'll notice I added a new section, Hall of Shame. These are pictures that are in essense an embarassment to the arena of action features and/or more than likely going to blow big time. I could be wrong of course, and sometimes I end up liking movies that most of the critical world deems a flop. But, nonetheless, Ill believe it when I see it.

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Danny the Dog
According to JL2H, Jet Li's fight scenes in "Danny the Dog", which will be choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, will resemble his Hong Kong movie fights scenes rather than the ones he has done for American audiences. Thank goodness.

CHOPSAKI HALL OF SHAME
Bulletproof Monk
I had mentioned previously that I was skeptical of this new Chow Yun Fat vehicle, mostly because of the unforgivable presense of "Stifler" from the American Pie Movies. But now that I have seen the awful trailers, now Im pretty sure it's going to blow. And seeing how they have a Jennifer Garner-wannabe-kungfu chick in the movie, that only seals the dark outlook on this movie. However, Ive been surprised in the past, perhaps they can pull it off. Either way, you can see the official website here.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer
Now, this is what really pisses me off. No one could possibly live up to the performance Brandon Lee gave in the original "Crow". Vincent Perez couldn't do it in the "so-called" sequel, and Eric Mabius sure as hell couldn't do it either. And no matter how much I love Mark Dacascos, even he couldn't resurrect the role on TV. Now the powers that be are trying to breath life into the franchise once again, casting Edward Furlong as the lead. It was rumored that DMX was in talks to play the lead, of course this time with an urban spin on things, but seeing as how X has the Midas Touch when it comes to films and all, that never materialized. You can read more info on the movie here.

WHO WILL BE THE APRIL FOOL? RUSSELL WONG OR ZHANG YIMOU?

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. As you know quite a few things have been happening in the world of action movies.

Sadly, "Hero" did not succeed at its Oscar bid for Best Foreign Film, but on the flips side Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" did win for Best Animated Film. But I find it interesting that none of the stars or the director of "Hero" were in attendence at the Oscar ceremony. Sopposedly the director and stars (minus Jet Li and Donnie Yen) all said they would not attend in protest to the war with Iraq. But honestly, I think they were protesting something else. There is more information on the stars not attending at Kungfucinema.com.

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FILMS IN THE WORKS
Around the World in 80 Days
Veteran Chinese action star Sammo Hung will join his peer, Jackie Chan in "Around the World in 80 Days" according to Kung Fu Cinema. More pictures from the movie can be seen here.

Danny the Dog
Morgan Freeman talks to MovieHole about his role in Danny the Dog. But it seems confusing, since previous news about the movie alluded to the fact that Jet is portraying the role of Danny, yet when asked who is Danny the Dog, Morgan replies "Me. The human pit bull." So either the actors are trying to confuse us about the plot, or the movie itself is confusing.

MOVIES IN THE CAN
Hero
MonkeyPeaches reported that Zhang Yimou was staying in the states after Oscars to do damage control. Here is what it posted: "According to China News Agency, Zhang Yimou has stayed in the US for several more days after the Oscar night, so he could talk to people from Miramax about where Hero's promotion went wrong. It was reported also that he talked to several members from the American Film Institute and voting member of the Academy Awards, to find out more about the strengths and weaknesses of his film."

JL2H also posted winners of the Hong Kong Bauhinia awards, which awarded spots to Hero. Here is what it posted: "Bauhinia awards, Hong Kong, Winners of the 8th Golden Bauhinia Awards have been announced in Hong Kong, and Christopher Doyle won for Best Cinematography for his work on Hero. Maggie Cheung, who was nominated for Best Actress, lost to Lee Sin-Je who starred in the Pang Brother's The Eye. Zhang Ziyi also lost the Best Supporting Actress award to Lam Kar-Yan for her work on July Rhapsody. While Hero was nominated for Best Film, the award was won by none other than Infernal Affairs."

According to JL2H, a website called AV89.com is taking preorders for extended Hero DVD, sopposed with the original 120 minutes. It does not have a cover displayed and there is no telling whether they are legit. You can, however, get the 2-disc Hero set (without extended version) from HKFlix.com here.

MonkeyPeaches also claims to have the Version-9 DVD which sopposedly is superior in quality to the Version 5. But it sounds kind of fishy, since they are selling it for $6 bucks and their description still lists the Version-9 as being only 98 minutes long. You can see all of their Hero productshere.

And last but not least, YesAsia is also selling the Hero DVDs but with an added bonus.....four Hero character dolls. They are quite cute, though, but you'll see the price is a little more expensive.

ACTOR NEWS
Russell Wong
Now there's a name we haven't heard for a while. As many may already know, Russell's new show "Black Sash" premiered Sunday night on the WB. As is with anything WB, this show deals mainly with teen angst and problem resolution. However, with Russell in the mix, the problem resolution often includes some PG-rated, network-digestable ass-whooping and of course, sage advice doled out by Russell himself. Personally the show sort of reminds me of "Everwood", almost the same plot, except in this case Russell is an ex cop who's living as a civilian martial arts instructor (rather than ex-surgeon turned small-town physician) who was dealt a serious blow after being set-up and sent to jail, therefore losing his wife and daughter (rather than being dealt a serious blow losing his wife, and being somewhat seperated from his son). So you can basically predict that most of the show will be committed to Russell helping the teens sort out their minor problems, while he serves justice and sorts out his own family issues.

***
While I'm glad to see Russell back in the game, taking on WB is always a gamble and could be Russell's sudden end. But, if Mark Dacascos career has taught us anything, then surely Russell can survive mediocrity and a crappy show for a season or two, and then re-invent himself and rise like the phoenix from the flames as Mark did. D'oh! That was pretty cheezy. Oh well, Im still glad to see Russell back on TV though.