February 8, 2007
Top stars SKH, LBH and JWS to collaborate with director Kim Ji Woon
The three big stars Song Gang Ho, Lee Byung Hun, and Jung Woo Sung were cast in one movie simultaneously, which is creating a stir.
On the 8th, according to the movie production company Baruson Entertainment, Song Gang Ho, Lee Byung Hun, and Jung Woo Sung were casted as the three main male lead characters in director Kim Ji Woon's new movie "Good Guy, Bad Guy, Strange Guy," which takes place in the plains of Manchuria.
For these top stars, who are rated in the nation's entertainment world as "Top Actors Picked For Casting," it is a remarkably unique event for them to be cast in the same movie at the same time.
For "Good Guy, Bad Guy, Strange Guy," the projected funding will be over 10 million dollars, and it is a grandiose Korean movie with a Western movie style. It is an adventure story set in the plains of Manchuria, which became the fighting grounds for the 20th century superpowers of the world, and it focuses on the main characters' flight and pursuit.
Lee Byung Hun's character says that he hunts prey, but he's actually a warm-hearted "good guy." Jung Woo Sung plays a "bad guy" who doesn't even hesitate to kill for the sake of becoming the best.
Song Gang Ho, who was the first to be cast, plays the "strange guy" who is always at the source of trouble of accidents but has a knack for surviving through everything.
Director Kim Ji Woon had worked together with Song Gang Ho for "Foul King," and with Lee Byung Hun for "Bittersweet Life," but it is his first collaboration with Jung Woo Sung.
"Good Guy, Bad Guy, Strange Guy" will start filming in April, and is planned to be released early next year.
Source: BROASIA.com, image from empas.com
Feb 15 2007
Three top stars join director KIM Jee-woon
Top actors LEE Byung-heon, JUNG Woo-sung and SONG Kang-ho have all agreed to star in director KIM Jee-woon's ambitious new project The Good, the Bad and the Weird. LEE will portray "the good", JUNG "the bad", and SONG "the weird", respectively.
A so-called "Korean-style Western" set in Manchuria during the early 1900s, the film ranks as one of the highest-profile Korean films scheduled to be shot this year. The casting of three major actors in a single film also makes it a virtual showcase of Korean star power.
Produced by Barunson and sold internationally by Cineclick Asia, The Good, The Bad and the Weird will cost over $10 million and is tentatively scheduled to start shooting in spring of this year, with a release expected in 2008.
Inspired by the Sergio Leone classic The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, the film also builds off a string of Korean genre films from the 1970s that combined the aesthetics of the Western with outlaw movements aligned against Japanese colonial forces.
International sales company Cineclick Asia will have the film available for pre-sale at this week's European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Credit Darcy Paquet (KOFIC)
