Welcome to the first The Asian/Asian-American Hollywood (AAAH) Report!
I’m not sure if this will be a recurring report, but I think I’ll try it out. I’m always reading the trades and taking note of the up & coming Asian/Asian American actors/actresses making it in mainstream Hollywood productions, so maybe I’ll try to keep up a little better and make this a regular thing. And I’ll try to pay attention to things that don’t aren’t just about actors and actresses, but various things that are related, too. But if people hate this report, I won’t bother.
The first report will be a (lazy) list of links seen in recent VARIETY blurbs + one quick article from elsewhere:
* I’m a HEROES geek so I loved seeing my beloved Ando’s face in today’s VARIETY.
James Kyson Lee (“Heroes”) has landed a supporting role in 20th Century Fox’s “Shutter.” Story concerns newlyweds in Japan who are haunted by a ghost. Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor star; Masayuki Ochiai directs. Shooting is under way in Tokyo. Lee next will be seen in “Moola,” with Treat Williams; “The Roel“; and “Another Weekend.”
(Actually, I’m personally interested to find out more about “White on Rice,” which James will star in in 2008. The plot outline: The story of a Japanese family living in the United States. A 40 year old man and his 10 year old nephew fall in love with the same woman.”)
* Another Korean-American actor on the move is Justin Chon, who is best known for his work in… um, stuff targeted for those in the younger demographic. Last week, VARIETY reported the following:
Justin Chon (Nickelodeon’s “Just Jordan”) has joined the cast of the Weinstein Co.’s “Crossing Over.” Harrison Ford and Sean Penn star in the Wayne Kramer-helmed immigration drama.
Chon recently completed roles in “Gary the Tennis Coach” and “Hack!”
Good for Justin for landing a role in a feature film. I’m especially intrigued by the synopsis of this film: “Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles.”
* Meiling (Mei) Melançon (you may know her as Psylocke) joins the cast of a movie starring HEROES star Milo Ventimiglia, VARIETY reported last week:
Keri O’Donnell (“Wedding Crashers”), Michael Weston (“The Last Kiss”) and Mei Melancon (“X-Men: The Last Stand”) round out the cast of Lakeshore Entertainment’s “Pathology.” Thriller, about med students competing to commit the perfect murder, is directed by Marc Schoelermann and will be shopped to international buyers at Cannes. Cast includes Milo Ventimiglia and Alyssa Milano.
* And finally, though not technically Hollywood news, JoBlo.com is reporting that Chow Yun-Fat is returning to John Woo’s Chinese epic BATTLE OF RED CLIFF. That’s right, I said “returning” because it was previously reported that Chow pulled out of his leading role because he got the script late and didn’t have enough time to prepare. Check out this casting craziness!
If you’re unfamiliar with the back-story, Chow Yun Fat was cast in the lead role of Zhou Yu, and Tony Leung was cast in the supporting role of Zhuge Liang. Then, Leung dropped out, to be replaced by Takeshi Kaneshiro (HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS), and a couple of months later, Chow Yun Fat dropped out too, citing his late receipt of the script as the reason. Now, in any movie production, this would be a fairly ridiculous circumstance (to have your 2 headliners drop out as shooting begins), but a couple of weeks ago, Leung returned to the project to take the role that Chow Yun Fat vacated. Are you still with me? Because now apparently, Chow Yun Fat has ‘verbally agreed’ to return to the film, now in an unspecified role. It’s a ridiculous circumstance, but I still have high hopes for the movie. Stay tuned to find out which of the cast members is voted off the island next week!
If you’re confused, it’s ok. It’s still messed up on IMDB!
That’s it for this first edition of the AAAH Report! Let me know what you think of it!
