[2024.04.08] NICHOLAS TSE'S NEW FILM PRODUCTION IS ON HOLD

Nicholas Tse's new film is on hold

Sandy Lam's daughters earlier celebrate Andrew Lau's birthday

Nicholas Tse's new film RAGING HAVOK did not wrap up production until the end of last month
courtesy of on.cc

After the pandemic the market condition has remained unclear, the film industry has been worse and worse. With poor box office, investors have not dare to invest heavily. Companies have also been more cautious than the past about starting production, no longer dared to make risky investments again as they worried about losing their shirts at any minute. Hence actors' livelihoods have been affected as well. Recently working in the mainland for the long run, the Hong Kong Film Award winning director Andrew Lau wai Keung last year was about to invite Best Actor Nicholas Tse Ting Fung to form a golden team for an action film. It was expected to shoot on location in Zhongshan, Dongguan and other places. Originally the planning and the production start were already at the ready to go stage, only later some felt that even Best Actor Nick Cheung Ka Fai with William Chan Wai Ting's film BURSTING POINT (BAU LIT DIM) that was expected to make 200 million yuan RMB but in the end only made 100 million yuan. Thus he too held back.

Aside from the general climate, actually the new subject Lau Wai Keung planned to shoot revolved around law enforcers and action scenes. Since it would not be a rare sight, adding top domestic actors no longer had an edge with the mainland viewers. Even Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Aaron Kwok Fu Sing's ability to carry the box office could not compare to their glory days at all. Actually Lau Wai Keung over a year ago pointed out that 20 years ago the film market was just as low. He was determined to invest several tens of millions on the film INFERNAL AFFAIRS (MO GAN DOH), but he felt that casually making movies in a poor market was just like "taking everyone down with him". This time under the goal of working with Ting Fung, he considered the various uncertain factors. Reportedly after numerous discussion with investors, he decided to postpone the new film indefinitely.

Another Ting Fung film RAGING HAVOK (NO FOR MAN YIN) was originally schceduled to wrap up production before the Lunar New Year. As the production neared its end, too many units made the production go severely overbudget. In the end the film had to postpone its official productoin end until last month. Reportedly the team in order to complete the production as soon as possible, film graduates assisted at a friendly rate. Fortunately in the end the production wrapped successfully. As for the Juno Mak Chun Lung directed and written SONS OF THE NEON NIGHTS (FUNG LUM FOR SHAN), as early as 2017 HK$ 400 million was spent on the production with Louis Koo Tin Lok, Sean Lau Ching Wan, Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo), Gao Yuanyuan, Tony Leung Ka Fai and others in the cast. The production took 8 months to complete, but the film has yet to finish its post production and voice work. In February this year, Mak Chun Lung was asked about the new film's progress. He said that the post production still had 20% left before completion. A mainland video platform had a trailer for the film's 2025 release. When asked to confirm, Mak Chun Lung's manager said, "We have no comment for now."