The 2014 Hong Kong Filmart began on Monday 24th March with a number of announcements, including veteran producer Raymond Wong’s Pegasus Motion Pictures announcing a slate of high profile projects including Z-Storm, Wisely and a little movie called Ip Man 3.
Z Storm follows what begins as a simple enough police corruption investigation for the ICAC (Independent Commision Against Corruption), which unearths a massive financial fraud that incriminates key figures in the police and the government. The film which stars Louis Koo, Lo Hoi-pang and Michael Wong also marks the return to the directors chair after nearly twenty years for director David Lam whose credits include classics like Hong Kong Gigolo and two earlier ICAC classics Powerful Four and The First Shot.
The film depicts the ICAC, Hong Kong’s forty year old anti-corruption body that was formed in the '70s after a number of high profile police officers were found to be involved in all manner of criminal activity, as a separate entity battling both the police & the government. According to producer John Chong, “...this is fiction, not reality’ and Chong compares the pacing and feel of the film to both the tv series 24 and Infernal Affairs which was produced by Chong at Media Asia.
Pegasus will also produce a new live action adventure for Wisely, the character created by Ni Kuang who has toplined a series of novels and previously made the move to the big screen in such projects as The Seventh Curse, Legend of the Gold Pearl and Bury Me High with Chow Yun-fatt, Sam Hui and Chin Kar-lok essaying the character. No casting has been confirmed for the character as yet, although previously Donnie Yen was attached to a Wisely project being developed by Ip Man 1 and 2 director Wilson Yip.
Pegasus will also be reuniting the majority of the production team behind the first two Ip Man movies for the long awaited official Ip Man 3 in 3D, including director Wilson Yip and leading man Donnie Yen. The film is scheduled for a December 2015 release, which would mean production would need to begin soon after Yen completes work on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2. Yen still has a full dance card, to say the least, with the release of the two part Iceman Cometh remake scheduled for the spring, Kung Fu Killer/Last of the Best also set for release, the international release of Monkey King and a number of projects including Kowloon Walled City/Dragon City and now Ip Man 3 in development...
.jpg)
