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Thursday
05Nov2009

Zhang Ziyi Picks a 'Snow Flower'

DateThursday, November 5, 2009 at 1:59PM
It's not a great big news day and she's really hot, so naturally, we'll tell you about the latest Zhang Ziyi project. Can you believe it's almost been a full decade since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? It's the biggest foreign language film ever, the only one to ever top $100 million in the US. That's Zhang's introduction to most western audiences, although you have to see her in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home from one year earlier. Heartbreaking.

She has not been a major American star, even though she did get her chance with Memoirs of a Geisha, but some of her other foreign language films - Hero and House of Flying Daggers - have also made an impression on audiences here in the states. Hero, in fact, is the third-highest-grossing foreign language film ever.

For her next trick, The Hollywood Reporter says Zhang will produce and star in the Wayne Wang period drama Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a story of two young women and their "imprisonment by rigid cultural codes of conduct for women." Although set (and filmed) in China, the film will be in English. Buyers and financiers are being sought at the American Film Market this week and next. Curiously, Wang has never shot a film in his native country until now.

One other point of note: One of Zhang's producing partners is Wendi Murdoch, the Chinese-born wife of somebody named Rupert Murdoch. The other producing partner is the Malaysian-Chinese Florence Sloan, and she's married to MGM head Harry Sloan. So why do they need to find other backers?

Be that as it may, the film should be bankable in both China and the United States, in large part because Zhang has kept a fairly high profile in China, and while she should've received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Crouching Tiger (which also should have beaten Traffic for Best Picture), she did receive a Golden Globe nomination for Geisha, and is one of the most identifiable Asian actresses to US audiences despite her seldom forays into American movies.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

Wow this is sooo weird, I was just reading up about her like yesterday on wikipedia...

Yea she is so amazing, greatly skilled actress, cant wait to see this...

It also doesnt hurt since shes engaged to the greatest major shareholder of company Time Warner as well as the Weinsteins guys...

It's not a great big news day and she's really hot, so naturally, we'll tell you about the latest Zhang Ziyi project

HAHAHA touche Colin

Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSEAN

". . . a story of two young women and their 'imprisonment by rigid cultural codes of conduct for women'."

Men are also "imprisoned by rigid cultural codes of conduct" but we don't hear about those. Apparently being eligible for the draft during wartime isn't a big deal because imposed exclusively onto men. It's interesting how successful women become, and how they gain exclusive entre, by milking the belief that they are always victims.

Zhang Ziyi has about as much chance of meeting and dating me as I have of meeting and dating her. Hell, one can't even get response to adult, profiessional emails from her ill-mannered manager.

Saturday, November 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJNagarya

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