By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SAMUEL L. JACKSON JOINS PRESENTERS OF WONG KAR-WAI’s THE GRANDMASTER

Posted Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 - Comments Off on SAMUEL L. JACKSON JOINS PRESENTERS OF WONG KAR-WAI’s THE GRANDMASTER
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FILMMAKER MARTIN SCORSESE ALSO BACKING FILM

New York, NY – August 20, 2013 – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that acclaimed actor Samuel L. Jackson is joining previously announced filmmaker Martin Scorsese in presenting their upcoming release, THE GRANDMASTER. Jackson, who attended the film’s New York premiere on August 13th, will be adding his name to the official supporters of the kung fu film, marking it MARTIN SCORSESE AND SAMUEL L. JACKSON PRESENT: ‘THE GRANDMASTER.’ TWC is releasing the film theatrically in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on August 23rd and nationwide on August 30th. Wong Kar Wai, helmer of such celebrated films as CHUNGKING EXPRESS, 2046, and MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, directed the film, which stars internationally beloved actors Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang, and Chang Chen. The picture is executive produced by Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison and opened the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

“THE GRANDMASTER is a wild ride and an expertly crafted martial arts film. I was blown away by Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang’s performances, and needless to say by Wong Kar Wai’s direction; he’s a living legend who I’ve admired for ages, and it’s a true honor to lend my support alongside Martin Scorsese.”

Commented TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein: “To have such names as Wong Kar Wai, Martin Scorsese, and now Samuel L. Jackson behind this release is an astounding show of prestige and a dream come true, to say the least. I stand with Wong Kar Wai in stating that we are beyond thrilled to have Sam’s support.”

ABOUT THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
The Weinstein Company (TWC) is a multimedia production and distribution company launched in October 2005 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films in 1979. TWC also encompasses Dimension Films, the genre label founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, which has released such popular franchises as SCREAM, SPY KIDS and SCARY MOVIE. Together TWC and Dimension Films have released a broad range of mainstream, genre and specialty films that have been commercial and critical successes.  TWC releases took home eight 2012 Academy Awards®, the most wins in the studio’s history. The tally included Best Picture for Michel Hazanavicius’s THE ARTIST and Best Documentary Feature for TJ Martin and Dan Lindsay’s UNDEFEATED. THE ARTIST brought TWC its second consecutive Best Picture statuette following the 2011 win for Tom Hooper’s THE KING’S SPEECH.

ABOUT ANNAPURNA PICTURES
Annapurna Pictures is a film production and finance company founded with the goal of boldly creating sophisticated, high-quality and ambitious films that appeal to a variety of audiences.

THE GRANDMASTER- IN THEATERS AUGUST 23rd
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon