Cusack and Li Head to Shanghai

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=39617


Source: Variety
November 27, 2007


The Weinstein Company has locked in Gong Li and is negotiating with John Cusack to star in Shanghai, a period drama the studio hopes to make in China early next year, reports Variety.

Mikael Hafstrom, who helmed Cusack in the Dimension hit 1408, will direct a script by Hossein Amini.

Cusack is in talks to play an American who returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

Phoenix Pictures topper Mike Medavoy and Barry Mendel will produce, with Arnie Messer executive producing. Shooting will take place in Shanghai.

 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=41619

Ken Watanabe Set for Shanghai
Source: Variety
February 3, 2008


The Weinstein Company has set Ken Watanabe to join John Cusack and Gong Li in Shanghai, a period drama that will begin shooting in China next month, ,reports Variety.

Mikael Hafstrom, who helmed Cusack in the Dimension hit 1408, will direct a script by Hossein Amini.

The film, which will shoot in Shanghai, is produced by Mike Medavoy and Barry Mendel. Arnie Messer is executive producer.

The drama, set four months prior to Dec. 7, 1941, follows an American who returns to a corrupt, Japan-occupied Shanghai to discover his friend has been killed. While trying to solve the murder, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=43088

Shanghai Filming Moved to Thailand, England
Source: Variety
March 19, 2008


Production of The Weinstein Company's period piece Shanghai is to relocate to Thailand and England following its forced exit from China, reports Variety.

Company co-prexy Harvey Weinstein considered Hong Kong and other Asian locations but said, "Hong Kong doesn't have the colonial era setting we need; it is difficult to find a building here less than 50 stories high. So we will be going to Thailand and, believe it or not, England."

The film is to be directed by Swedish helmer Mikael Hafstrom from a screenplay by Hossein Amini and will star John Cusack, Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe.

Hafstrom last month learned that the pic, which was in pre-production in China, had been denied the shooting permit it expected to receive. TWC had spent nearly $3 million building sets.

Weinstein said, "The (Chinese authorities') decision has everything to do with not liking the script, especially elements about (Chinese-Japanese) collaboration."

Set in 1940s Japanese-occupied Shanghai, the story involves an American who stumbles across government secrets while investigating the death of his friend.

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36410

The Weinsteins Move Forward With SHANGHAI



The Weinstein Company is backing two titles through its recently established Asian Film Fund. The first film produced with these resources, THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, opens this Friday.


SHANGHAI will be directed by Mikael Hafstrom (1408) and will reunite him with John Cusack. It'll also star Gong Li and Ken Watanabe. The story is set in 1941 China - it shoots in May for a Christmas release (wanna bet that release date changes?)

 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=45654

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Headed for Shanghai
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
June 4, 2008


Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Grey's Anatomy," "Supernatural," upcoming Watchmen) will star in the Weinstein Company's period piece Shanghai alongside John Cusack and Ken Watanabe.

Morgan plays Connor, an American killed in Japanese-occupied Shanghai before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Cusack's Paul Soames sets out to investigate his friend's murder and discovers a larger secret that the government is hiding.

Mikael Hafstrom (1408) is directing from a script by Hossein Amini (The Four Feathers). The film is in production in Thailand.

 

@ "Shanghai" press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, August 2

 

First stills.

 

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gif5xbcFd_Q

Personally I think it looks great despite the massive delays.