Searching for box-office gold

The Warner Bros release 10,000 B.C. opens in city cinemas after chalking up a sizzling box office total in North America of $35.7 million, last weekend.

Director Roland Emmerich's prehistoric adventure flick of a human tribe struggling to survive amid mammoths and saber-tooth tigers, raked in $25.3 million in overseas markets last week, taking the No.1 slot in 19 of 20 foreign territories.

This is Emmerich's second film to be screened in China after his 2004 horror thriller, The Day After Tomorrow.

National Treasure 2, the other box office champion, once again has treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) setting out on an exhilarating, action-packed new global quest to unearth hidden history and treasures.

When a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth surfaces, Ben's great-great grandfather is suddenly implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's death. Determined to prove his ancestor's innocence, Ben follows an international chain of clues that takes him on a chase from Paris to London and ultimately back to America. This journey leads Ben and his crew not only to surprising revelations - but to the trail of the world's most treasured secrets.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Jon Turteltaub and directed by Turteltaub, the story reunites the original cast including Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha and Academy Award-winner Jon Voight, joined this time by four-time Academy Award-nominee Ed Harris, Academy Award-nominee Harvey Keitel, and 2006 Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren.

Also showing at the cinemas is a Tibetan musical Gamlhamedog (snowy lotus in Tibetan), by director Dai Wei. Based on a century-old legendary love story, the film has been fully shot in Tibet. The unique scenery of the Land of Snows is captured in all its glory. The music is derived from native Tibetan folk songs.

The action epic An Empress and the Warriors, the directorial debut of the famous martial arts choreographer Ching Siu-tung, centers on an exiled princess trying to restore her fallen country with the help of a traveling warrior. The film which stars Leon Lai, kung fu star Donnie Yen and singer/actress Kelly Chan features magnificent scenes from China's Inner Mongolia and pulse-racing action sequences.

Deadly Delicious, with Hong Kong actor Francis Ng and mainland actress Yu Nan is about a frustrated wife who discovers her husband's extramarital affair and wants him to pay a price for his infidelity.

Mad Detective, that teams Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, is about a loony cop who solves crimes through intuition rather than by logic.

(China Daily 03/22/2008 page6)