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Thicker than water

Action flick Blood Brothers (Tiantang Kou) produced by John Woo has been chosen to close the 64th Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 29 to September 8.

Inspired by Woo's early work Bullet in the Head (Diexue Jietou), the film revolves around three young people who face different paths of adventure in 1930s' Shanghai.

Brothers is the maiden feature-length film of director Alexi Tan, while Terence Chang worked with Woo as co-producer.

The film features Liu Ye (Curse of the Golden Flower), Daniel Wu (The Banquet) and Zhang Zhen (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon).

Venice topper Marco Muller said this year's festival would mix the work of promising, young up-and-coming directors with that of established heavyweights.

Secrets of a super spy

Now, those hoping to learn more about the early history of the CIA don't have to turn to history books.

CAV Warner Home Video just released on DVD The Good Shepherd, in which superstars including Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie present the intriguing story of a CIA super spy.

The film tells a story of how Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) grows from a patriotic Yale student into one of the CIA's founding operatives. The story, which begins and ends around the time of the Bay of Pigs, looks at how working such a job changes one's personality. The character is partly based upon the founder of the CIA's counterintelligence operations, James Jesus Angelton.

Robert De Niro directs and acts in the film. Having prepared for this shoot for a decade, he calls the picture his "pet project".

Transforming the silver screen

The most powerful alien robots known to humankind are hitting China's big screens. Transformers, the film version of a popular TV cartoon series, will premiere in China tomorrow, one week after its US debut.

An irreplaceable part of many 20 and 30 something's collective memory, the robots who can twist and fold into automobiles and jets are expected to create a box office sensation in China. In the latest version, the two races of robotic aliens - the Rutobots and the Decepticons - have waged a war, with the world at stake. A little boy named Sam gets swept up in the battle, unaware that he is the last chance for mankind's survival.

It took approximately 38 hours for the animators of Industrial Light & Magic to render one frame of the CGI animation. This breaks the record set by Weta Workshop for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It took Weta's staff 20 hours to animate a single frame portraying the Ent named Treebeard.

China Daily

(China Daily 07/10/2007 page18)