MMA Fighter Cung Le Appearing in The Grand Master

Vietnamese mixed martial artist Cung Le will be appearing in The Grand Master.
Earlier this month the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion spoke of the possibility of working with director Wong Kar-wai:

Any additional Hollywood plans at the moment?
CL: I just got an offer to go to China before this shoot, and they’re willing to work around my schedule, to work with the famous director Wong Kar Wai. He’s a pioneer, and a very interesting artist.

http://thegarv.com/Cung-Le-speaks-on-future-and-current-movie-roles.html

On 25th October Cung Le tweeted:

“At San Fran International airport waiting to leave to Hong Kong. Get to work with Wong Kar Wai and Master Woo-ping at the same time! UsH!”

http://twitter.com/CungLe185

The Garv relayed an e-mail received from the MMA fighter:

“I am in China right now filming a movie with Director Wong Kar Wai and Action Director Woo-ping for a few weeks and will be back in the states on Nov. 7th to start Dragon Eyes a Joel Silver and After Dark production for seven weeks in New Orleans. I go back to China after Christmas to finish Grandmaster with Wong Kar Wai and Master Woo-ping for a week or two.”

http://thegarv.com/Cung-Le-Speaks-on-Future-and-Current-Movie-Roles.html
The mixed martial artist and actor has had supporting roles in Pandorum, Fighting, Bodyguards and Assassins and True Legend.

Song Hye-kyo Meeting with Wong Kar-Wai, Confirmed to Be Playing Yip Man’s Wife

Actress Song Hye-kyo met with director Wong Kar-wai on 19th October 2010 to discuss the progress of filming The Grand Master. Paparazzi managed to film the secret meeting and were able to capture exclusive images of reference photos shot for the film.
The first photo on the right is Song Hye-kyo with Zhang Ziyi (wearing a man’s suit).
The other one is Hye-kyo, Tony Leung (as Yip Man) and the actor playing their son. This pretty much confirms that Song Hye-kyo is playing Yip Man’s wife.
Wong Kar-wai began reshoots of the film starting in mid-September.

Credit: wloi @ Soompi.com

See the video shot by the paparazzi at the following link:
http://hk.sw.nextmedia.com/template/sw/art_main.php?iss_id=796&sec_id=1000863&art_id=14602421

UPDATE: Larger scans added (click to enlarge).

The Grand Master undergoing reshoots?

With the release of a promotional poster for The Grand Master it was expected that the film would be finished sooner rather than later.
However, a person purporting to be a crew member on the film has been tweeting messages on their Weibo account (Asian version of Twitter) which suggests otherwise. According to the staff member, they have recently been shooting scenes with both Tony Leung and Song Hye-kyo in a secret location in Guangzhou.
They were shooting past 4 a.m. as the child that Hye-kyo has been carrying was crying non-stop, and they needed to re-shoot it many times.

A photo of the meal schedule for the 21st of September for The Grand Master crew:

Breakfast: 06:30-08:00
Lunch: 12:00-14:00
Supper: 18:00-20:00

If the report of reshooting is true then it would certainly push back the intended release date for the Lunar New Year, making a Cannes 2011 premiere more likely. Director Wong Kar-wai has a habit of reshooting scenes as he spent three days re-shooting the final kiss in My Blueberry Nights.
Song Hye-kyo is scheduled to begin work on a new film (directed by Lee Jeong-hyang) in October.
However, Tony Leung won’t start work on his next film (directed by Derek Yee) February of next year.

http://t.sina.com.cn/1527186771
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=897058853
Credit: wloi @ soompi.com

UPDATE: They were filming in Chikan Movie and Television City.

Carina Lau challenges The Grand Master

At a promotional press conference for Jiang Wen’s film Let The Bullets Fly, actress Carina Lau predicted that this film would be this year’s Mainland box office champion.
Without any fear of her husband Tony Leung‘s holiday film The Grand Master (Yut Doi Jung Si), Carina said, “I am very willing to defeat him!”
A reporter asked her to predict the box office of Let The Bullets Fly. Carina confidently said, “Definitely this year’s best.” What if The Grand Master made the holiday slot? “First, I felt The Grand Master wouldn’t make it. Wong Kar-wai’s film production is truly too slow. Even if it would make it, I would be very glad to defeat them. I believe Wong Kar-wai would gladly watch the character that I create to be very successful.”


http://news.xinmin.cn/rollnews/2010/09/18/6905122.html

Tony Leung talks about The Grand Master at a Cartier event

Tony Leung attended a Cartier event in Shanghai.
Lately busy with the Wong Kar-Wai directed The Grand Master (Yut Doi Jung Si), Tony said, “Before the shoot, I have already begun to study Wing Chun. The production has been rather tough, I was also injured and hindered the progress.” Did he fall for Wing Chun because of it? Tony honestly said “No, my favorite is still running!”

http://eladies.sina.com.cn/news/p/2010/0920/07171019340.shtml

Bruce Leung Siu Lung to appear in The Grand Master

Martial arts actor Bruce Leung Siu-lung aka Bruce Liang (Gallants, Kung Fu Hustle) confirmed in an interview that he would be starring in The Grand Master.

CSB: You’ve done a lot of comedies since your comeback. Do you want to tackle some more dramatic roles?
Bruce Leung: Since Kung Fu Hustle, I’ve actually done 12 or 13 films in all different genres, not just comedies. I’m actually going to go to Shanghai to shoot a film with Chow Yun-Fat that does not require me to do any martial arts. And there is another one with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. I will also be in Wong Kar-Wai’s movie about Ip Man, playing one of the masters.

http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/?p=2681

Song Hye Kyo on a Taiwanese talk show

In a recent appearance on a talk show in Taiwan, actress Song Hye Kyo discussed some recent events in her life, saying she has been filming for Wong Kar Wai’s The Grand Master (一代宗師). “I’m putting in a lot of effort and always learning new things on the scene.” She also added, “It’s not easy, but I get a lot of help from people around me.”Song plays the lead role The Grand Master (一代宗師), directed by auteur-director Wong Kar Wai, and is currently busy filming alongside such renowned actors as Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen.

http://en.korea.com/blog/enter/movie/song-hye-kyo-on-a-talk-show-in-taiwan-keeps-remains-silent-about-hyun-bin/
http://www.tvdaily.co.kr/read.php3?aid=127951718773996002

Norah Jones on My Blueberry Nights

Norah Jones has a small role in upcoming film ‘Wah Do Dem’.
She talks a bit about starring in My Blueberry Nights in an interview with The AV Club:

AVC: The reception for My Blueberry Nights was pretty rough, and some of the reviews singled you out for your inexperience. Did you have any sort of trepidation about going in front of the camera again?

NJ: No, I don’t. I think I did what I was supposed to do in that film, because the director… There was nothing to prepare for. There was really no script to prepare with. He instructed me very explicitly to not take acting lessons. He likes to place his actors or whoever they are, whether they’re actors or not—you know, whether I was good or bad, or whether people liked it or not, I had a great time. I love film, and I would love to be a part of something that people universally love as a piece of film. Sure. Of course I would. And I would love to take acting lessons, and see that side of it someday. But I’m a musician. These two films I’ve done, I’ve done because even though they’re very different, they’re kind of loose and they seemed interesting. I felt like they were just another way to be creative, both at times in my life and career where I’ve been a little burnt out on doing what I do. So they both kind of have had a similar placement for me.

AVC: I’ll be honest, it’s not one of my favorite Wong Kar-wai movies.

NJ: Oh, mine either! [Laughs.] You know, whatever. [Laughs.]

AVC: Wong was clearly working out of his element, and without a lot of his regular collaborators.

NJ: Exactly. And I think for him, the language barrier—he speaks great English, but I think things are always more poetic on subtitles, so… [Laughs.] But I still loved making the film. I loved working with him. And I also loved, just visually his films are so beautiful. That one was no exception. And that was just really fun.

AVC: And whatever else, you get to—

NJ: I get to be pretty. If you’re a female and you get asked by someone who shoots the most beautiful female scenes to be in their film, it’s kind of exciting. [Laughs.] You know? I don’t usually look good like that, so—

AVC: There’s a lot of anticipation for all Wong Kar-wai’s movies, and that inevitably leads to disappointment sometimes.

NJ: He just has such a cult following. And I think, of course, if he’s going to make a movie in America with some famous movie stars, he’s going to get jumped on no matter what. It was great, though. It was really fun. I mean, some of the actors I got to work with, that was a great acting lesson right there. Watching them take what they were given, which was probably not traditional for what they do either. Even though I was out of my element, I felt like everyone kind of was in that film, which made it interesting from my perspective.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/norah-jones,42847/