The Weinstein Company Acquires Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s DRAGON (WU XIA)
Director Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s martial arts and film noir epic DRAGON (WU XIA), which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, is making its way to the United States. The Weinstein Company announced that it has acquired the film’s distribution rights for the world, outside of Asia and French speaking Europe from WE Distribution. It has also acquired first option to remake rights for the film.
Dragon is an action-packed tale of crime, family and redemption set in the late Qing Dynasty. Liu (Donnie Yen) is a papermaker, leading a simple life with his wife Ayu (Tang Wei) and their two sons. Into their remote village comes Detective Xu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), who is investigating the deaths of two bandits during a robbery. Xu quickly realizes that the incident in question was no ordinary botched robbery – and his dogged inquiry threatens to dredge up the dark secrets of Liu’s buried past, threatening not only Liu and his family, but the entire village.
Jimmy Wang Yu (One Armed Swordsman, The Chinese Boxer), who is widely credited as the Hong Kong kung fu star, makes his first film appearance in seventeen years.
Director Peter Ho-Sun Chan is one of Asia’s most celebrated filmmakers, whose critical and box office hits include award winning The Warlords, which he produced and directed, and Bodyguards and Assassins, which he produced.
The Weinstein Company Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein said,
“Peter Chan is a true artist and with Wu Xia he has created a dream project, combining two of my favorite genres: film noir and martial arts. Peter has been a friend for more than 10 years I could not be happier to be working with him on this film.”
The Weinstein Company plans to release Dragon to US theaters later this year.
