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Feng shoots for a greener Beijing

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (pictured left) has filmed a series of public service messages designed to promote a greener city. The theme aims to encourage awareness about environmental protection and public order. Feng has made eight short films, the first having been shot at a shopping mall in Beijing on June 28, with celebrity support from Ge You, Yang Kun, Zhang Liangying, Ruby Lin, Zhou Xun, Yu Quan, and Taiwan actor Alec Su.

The TV ad series will be broadcasted at BTV from September.

Cage and son's comic hero fights bigots

Nicolas Cage loves comic books so much, he created one of his own. The actor and his 16-year-old son, Weston (pictured with his mother Christina Fulton), took their new comic book, Voodoo Child, to the pop culture expo Comic-Con on Sunday.

Weston dreamt up the main character, Gabriel, a biracial teenage ghost who fights the evil of bigotry in post-Katrina New Orleans. "He's specifically dealing with racism," said Cage, a lifelong comic-book collector who played Marvel superhero Johnny Blaze in the movie Ghost Rider this year.

The 43-year-old Cage made no secret of his cinematic aspirations for his new comic creation.

"I have very high hopes to push Voodoo Child into script and production ... and perhaps play a role in the movie," he said. "We have those ideas in motion."

Weston said he would like to play a villain in the film. Cage said that Weston inspires him and that they hope to collaborate on other comic-book ideas.

Do the math, Lindsay and Paris 'are dumb'

Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb.

McKellar, who played Winnie on the 1990s television show The Wonder Years, is coming out with a book, Math Doesn't Suck, to encourage girls to get into math.

"When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible," the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek for editions to hit newsstands on Monday.

"But I want to show them that being smart is cool," she said. "Being good at math is cool. And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life."

McKellar should know. The actress once struggled with the subject around the seventh grade, but a teacher helped her through. McKellar eventually majored in math in college.

The book includes tips to avoid mistakes on homework, ways to overcome test-day anxiety and profiles of three beautiful mathematicians.

Hollywood eyes another Johnny To film

Joel Schumacher is in negotiation to direct Breaking News (Da Shijian), a remake of Hong Kong veteran director Johnny To's action film.

News centers around a cops-and-robbers story with a meta-media twist.

Schumacher's films include Phone Booth and The Phantom of the Opera. His latest is The Number 23 starring Jim Carrey. Now, he is working on the thriller Town Creek. Alex de Rakoff is writing the script for the film, which will be produced by Gold Circle's Paul Brooks.

In 2006, Martin Scorsese remade Hong Kong director Wai Keung Lau's Infernal Affairs (Wujian Dao) into The Departed, which won four Academy Awards. The rights to Lau's other crime thriller, Confession of Pain (Shang Cheng), have also been purchased by Warner Brothers.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 07/31/2007 page18)