Universe rides high on "Storm"

HONG KONG – Universe Entertainment wheeled out the stars at Hong Kong FilMart for their big-budget fantasy actioner "The Storm Riders II", which features the return of Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng as Cloud and Wind in the comic-book adaptation.
Lensing on the $12 million sequel to 1998's smash hit "The Storm Riders" starts next month and horror helmers, twin brothers Danny and Oxide Pang ("The Eye"), are spending big on post-production to get a "300" kind of feel to the pic.
The film is slated for release by the end of 2009 in Hong Kong, China and Asia and pic appears to being down a storm in Asia, making multiple sales at FilMart.
"The Storm Riders II" will the first Hong Kong movie that is filmed exclusively on blue screen and custom-made sets," said executive producer Daneil Lam. "Post production will be particularly important and worth putting the money into. Our goal is to produce a very visually stunning movie."
Pic also features Simon Yam as Lord Godless, "Dragon Tiger Gate's" Nicholas Tse as Heart, Charlene Choi, who is one half of the Twins pop duo, as Second Dream and a rising star from Chinese Chengtian Entertainment's stable, Tiffany T, who will play Chu Chu.
Golden Harvest, which produced the original "The Storm Riders," has distribution rights for Hong Kong, while Golden Harvest and Chengtian will distribute the pic on Universe's behalf in mainland China. Universe will distribute in the rest of the world.
Pic has been sold to Mono Film in Thailand, Scorpio in Singapore, P.T. Teguh Bakti Mandiri in Indonesia and there has been strong bidding from Malaysia.
"The Storm Riders II" is an adaptation of comic master Ma Wing Shing's 1990s best-selling "Fung Wan". The original pic, helmed by Andrew Lau of "Infernal Affairs" fame, did boffo B.O. in Hong Kong, relling in HK$41 million a decade ago.
The film makers stressed that getting the right overall look for the movie was of key importance.
CGI and special effects are central to the pic and will be done by Fat Face Productions, which did "Recycle" and "The Warlords." Post production is expected to take more than a year.
Art director and costume designer Yee Chung Man is planning to collaborate with mainland Chinese fashion designers to give a brand new look to the pic.