| * Jade Warrior (Armuvalus sõdalane in Estonian, Jatesoturi in Finnish), a new epic feature film being shot as a Finnish-Chinese-Estonian-Dutch co-production and the most expensive co-production film in the history of film production in Estonia, began. |
This film, directed by A.J. Annila based on the story from the Finnish screenwriter Iiro Kütner, is founded on Chinese kung-fu film traditions, but the action takes place in the present. “This is a truly original approach to the Finnish national epic Kalevala. It is a thrilling and melodramatic story of unrequited love that has lasted for a thousand years already,” said Margus Õunapuu, the Estonian producer of the film and head of the Film Tower production company. This is the first kung-fu film to be produced in Estonia or Finland. Noted Finnish actors Tommi Eronen (Children and Adults, dir. Aleksi Salmenperä) and Markku Peltola (The Man Without a Past, dir. Aki Kaurismäki) play the ........ |
.......... principal roles in the film, along with top Chinese actors Zhang Jingchu (Peacock, awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, The War of Red Cliff, in production with Hollywood director John Woo) and Cheng Taishen (The World, dir. Jia Zhangke). Elle Kull plays one of the principal roles.
Shooting began in August of this year in Finland and is now continuing in Estonia for one month. Beginning next Wednesday, the film crew and actors will be in Vihterpalu bog, where an ancient smithy has been constructed. In addition to large-scale exterior shots, the film will also be shot in several locations in Tallinn.
The budget of the film is nearly 40 million Estonian kroons. The Estonian Film Foundation is supporting the production of the film in 2005-2006 in the amount of up to 10 percent of the budget of the film.
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