[2024.08.06] INVESTORS HALTS NICHOLAS TSE'S NEW FILM PROJECTS

A film Ting Fung is set to direct encounters obstacles.

Nick Cheung and William Chan's BURSTING POINT grossed 100 million yuan at the box office.
courtesy of on.cc

courtesy of mingpao.com

In recent years, Hong Kong's "superstar effect" has failed to show its stellar effect in the mainland market. Even the most popular action and police movies have plummeted in popularity, leaving many film investors feeling helpless. Some new films that had entered the pre-production stage were forced to halt due to this, including the Nicholas Tse Ting fung directed NEW POLICE STORY 2 (SUN GAING CHAK GOO SI). He and William Chan Wai Ting starred MO HAN YUM MO (INFINITE MISSION) has been "vanished". Faced with a series of "defeats", Ting Fung found ways to successfully save himself.

Since last year, many movies with heavy investment and big name casts have not performed as expected when they were released in the mainland. For example, Tony Leung Chiu Wai's THE GOLDFINGER (GUM SAU JI) only recorded a box office of 574 million yuan. Chow Yun Fat's ONE MORE CHANCE (BIT GIU NGOR DOH SUN) took in 40.78 million yuan at the box office. Cops and robbers films such as the Nick Cheung Ka Fai and William Chan Wai Ting starred BURSTING POINT finally collected 100 million yuan. The recent Jackie Chan starred fantasy action film LEGEND was even more shocking, with only 79.88 million yuan, "bringing up the rear" during the summer vacation prime time period and the mainland media describing as "total loss"!

In view of the recent failure of action police and gangster films, the mainland market, which has been described as the "last lifeline", has also disappeared. Before being able to "hit rock bottom", film companies were "doing the math" on many Hong Kong-produced or co-produced action films. After much research, they reluctantly decided to call it a day. The Tse Ting Fung directed and Charlene Choi Cheuk Yin starred NEW POLICE STORY 2 has been in preparation for a long time and was once rumored to start filming in May this year. Unfortunately, the market atmosphere has become increasingly bad. Recently, reliable news has claimed that it has been decided to temporarily shelve the film. Another new film MO HAN YUM MO (INFINITE MISSION) starring Ting Fung and William Chan Wai Ting has also been "disappeared". The film company conceivably will only consider restarting it when the environment improves. Although Ting Fung seemed to have had a series of "bad starts", he has always been able to take advantage of it. He suddenly changed his freed up schedule to shoot BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS, the blockbuster that was adapted from a mainland comic. He also planned to start a concert tour next year and would continue to be busy.

Reportedly almost no Hong Kong films have started production recently. Even the COLD WAR film series that is currently in production will be completed in two parts at once in an attempt to reduce production costs. This time only Daniel Wu (Ng Yin Cho), Wu Kang-Ren, Terrance Lau Chun Him, Jeffrey Ngai Chun Sun and many other "value" actors participated in the filming; all the big names were out, saving a large amount of actors' fees. In addition, with the blessing of the words COLD WAR, some filmmakers predicted that under the limited investment amount the films might successfully carve out a bloody path.