Are the directors and film producers of the world running out of imagination? Something about the film climate of Shanghai, and most of the worlds mainstream cinema this last year has been a bit... repetitive.. with remakes, sequels, new versions of old movies, adaptations of comic books or literary classics or just movies on the exact same theme we´ve seen popping up in the theatres lately. We've had Transformers 2, Ip Man 2, Iron Man 2, Step Up 2, Kung Fu Hip Hop 2, Shrek 4, Alice In Wonderland, Doraemon, Astro Boy, G.I. Joe, Black Cat Detective, kung fu kicks here and kung fu tricks there and god knows how many government made flicks with the single goal to place an air of glory around The People's Republic of China. more ›

From Xinhua we learn that Ridley Scott has purchased the rights to two screenplays—Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) and Genghis Khan (成吉思汗). According to that and other reports, Scott is intent on making a historical epic type film about China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, with the help of Zhang Yimou, whose film Hero featured the first emperor as a character. According to Chinese reports, Scott will probably get down to some serious work on this after the 2008 Olympics, in part because Zhang Yimou's a little busy with the opening and closing ceremony preparations. Though we respect Ridley Scott, we really can't feel an ounce of excitement about yet another historical epic full of grandiose themes that will ooh and ahh us for two, maybe three hours, and then you leave you feeling just about as empty as you did before. more ›