Local movie Once Upon A Time starts shooting next week.
Ambitious: Malaysian entertainer Jack Lim hopes his new film, Once Upon A Time, will do better than his last film, Ah Beng The Movie: Three Wishes, at the box office.
JACK Lim is feeling mighty excited about his upcoming lunar new year movie Once Upon A Time. It will be his first period film.
The movie will commence filming on Sept 11 at 5am. According to a feng shui master, 5am is an auspicious time. The movie will take 20 days to shoot.
Lim, 37, has adapted his popular radio skit Wong Kung Can Lan (Palace Stories) for his latest movie. Conceptualised some 10 years ago by Vivian Tok and Lim, the light-hearted political satire included characters such as the Emperor, eunuchs, concubines and other members of royalty.
It evolved over the years and ended up with Lim voicing the Emperor and fellow radio deejay Gan Mei Yan as Yu Fa, the imperial maid.
In Once Upon A Time, Lim and Gan both reprise their roles as Emperor and Yu Fa, respectively.
The movie follows the adventures of the Emperor and his two companions (played by Gan and Tok) who somehow travel through time and end up in the year 2013 while trying to escape a coup d’état.
“Half of the movie goes back some 6,000 years, while the other half is set in modern times. When these olden day folks start discovering modern inventions, that’s when the fun begins,” said Lim in a recent phone interview.
“We’re also rushing to complete the costumes with fabric imported from Hong Kong. Our characters start off dressed in leather gear, somewhat similar to what Tarzan would wear, as our story is set before the beginning of ancient Chinese civilisation. It takes a lot of imagination to create everything from scratch as the story is fictional,” he said.
The lunar new year flick is a comedy that explores family values, friendships and relationships.
Produced by The Film Engine and distributed by RAM Entertainment,Once Upon A Time will be directed by Silver, with Lim as executive producer.
The production budget for this new project will be bigger than his previous movies as Lim is constructing his own sets for the movie.
“We’re taking audiences back to more than 6,000 years ago, much earlier than the time of China’s emperors. The building of the period set with the palace and the village has exceeded RM1mil.
“The whole set is about the size of two football fields. We expect the budget to exceed RM3mil.”
He initially thought of filming in China, but after considering the schedules of the actors, Lim decided to build his own sets here, instead. Even so, it was a toss-up between Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.
“In Ipoh, the beautiful limestone hills are reminiscent of the ones in China, while in Kuala Lumpur, the sets would come in handy for movie promotion after we’re done with shooting.
“Imagine how much fun it would be for fans to be able to visit the set when the movie screens in local cinemas. It would make a great tourist spot where visitors can have fun snapping pictures with their families.”
Once Upon A Time also brought back the main cast of his previous film Ah Beng The Movie: Three Wishes, with Tok now as a eunuch, Jeff Chin as Prime Minister Turtle, Wan Wai Fun as General Snake and Phoebe Yap as imperial concubine.
Other cast members include Royce Tan, Bernard Hiew, Jym Chong, Jason Phang, Alvin Chong, Gan Jiang Han, Siow Hui Mei, Wang Chun Pin, Chen Keat Yoke, Catherine Ang and Susan Lankester.
Also, award-winning actor Rosyam Nor will have a cameo in the movie. It will be Rosyam’s first time acting in a Cantonese movie and he will be saying his lines in Bahasa Malaysia.
“Rosyam invited me to star in his Bahasa Malaysia gangster movieBalistik. We appreciate each other’s talents and I feel that he is a very good role model. Furthermore, he’s won multiple awards. I hope to win awards, too,” enthused Lim.
From left: Director Silver posing with actors Rosyam Nor and Jason Phang.
Although Once Upon A Time is set to go head-to-head with Aniu’s The Wedding Diary 2 and Namewee’s Kara King during the lunar new year period, Lim is hoping to top Ah Beng The Movie: Three Wishes record of RM7.55mil and plans to set aside 10% of the box office takings as bonuses for the cast and crew.
“I’m hoping that Malaysians will continue to watch local movies and give us their full support. ”
Once Upon A Time is scheduled for release on Feb 7 next year.
source: thestaronline; story also in > The Star > Star2 > Movies > page 27 > on Friday 7 September 2012.)
news story link: http://ecentral.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/9/7/movies/11966820&sec=movies
isnap photo gallery: http://mystar.my/isnap/p/?d=03092012&s=stonce_03092012
isnap video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soBJtT3dSYQ