Lord of Shanghai (China)
Director: Sherwood Hu
Producer: Sherwood Hu
Production: Hus Entertainment
Screenplay: Sherwood Hu/Hong Ying/Pang Bei
DOP: Peter Pau
Genre: Melodrama Shooting Material: 35mm Length: 120 min
Stage of script: Finished
Language: Chinese Mandarin, English, Shanghai Dialect
Production Budget:12,500,000 USD, about 100,000,000 RMB
Finance in place: 20 million RMB
Business Partner involved:
Shanghai Film Group Corporation
Beijing Polybona Film Distribution
The J C Group
Japan ACC
Seeking: Co-investor, Territory Buyer, Ads Sponsor
Synopsis:
Lord of Shanghai is a period gangster drama set in the chaotic time of 1920s in Shanghai. It's an epic romance focusing on one woman's intertwined love affairs with three generations of mobster king and her destiny of becoming the Lord of the Shanghai Triad.
Sold to a brothel in Shanghai at the age of 15 in 1906, this innocent village girl quickly becomes the favorite of the mobster king who is 30 years older than her. Witnessing her beloved protector assassinated by his rival, she exiles to poverty with her unborn daughter. In order to survive, she becomes a popular opera singer and has won the heart of the second generation of mobster king. After discovering that the assassinator is the second mobster king, she swears to take revenge. Although her third lover takes over the triad after the assassination of his predecessor, she is the one who has the real power to control the family. Having sensed that her new lover has an affair with her daughter, she is collapsing. She is accepted as Lord of Shanghai after her only daughter dies by accident in 1927.
Director's Statement:
Lord of Shanghai will be the first Chinese gangster movie with international appeal. I intend to not only showcase the celebration of a legendary woman, but also portray the metropolis in that historical era, as to pay a tribute to Shanghai, the ''Paradise of Risk Takers'' since its birth in mid 1900s.
Director's Biography
Born to a family of artists in Shanghai, Sherwood Hu moved to the US to receive his M.F.A. from New York State University and a Ph.D. from University of Hawaii in theatre and film directing decades ago. Sherwood's feature film credits include Prince of the Himalayas (2007); Lani Loa,the Passage, executively produced by Francis Ford Coppola in 1998; and fantasy drama Warrior Lanling in 1995. In 2003 he returned to China to direct a forty episode TV series Purple Jade for China Central Television. Since then, Sherwood has continued to pursue his stage dreams with A.R. Gurney's Sylvia; Jean-Paul Sartre's Dirty Hands; and a modern ballet Shakespeare and His Women for The 8th Shanghai International Arts Festival. In 2008, he comes back to The 9th Shanghai International Arts Festival with a stage adaptation of Prince of the Himalayas. Hu also finds the time to be a guest professor at the Shanghai Drama Academy where he supervises and mentors the graduate students.
Production Company:
Hus Entertainment (Shanghai)
Based in Shanghai, Hus Entertainment was founded by Dr. Sherwood Hu in 2005 as a production company for film, television, theater and other entertainment projects. Hu Entertainment is committed to producing high quality projects with an international appeal, with the latest film being Prince of the Himalayas, an epic romance adapted from Hamlet. The film is now being distributed world wide by a US company, LongTale International. The company has also produced an original modern ballet Shakespeare and His Women, and a stage version of Prince of the Himalayas with the same cast from the film. The stage version has received kudos at the 9th Shanghai International Arts Festival. A 30 episode TV series The War of Peiking is now in production. Lord of Shanghai will be the first Chinese language film for Sherwood Hu and the second film for Hus Entertaiment in 2009. Hus Entertainment is affiliated with its LA-based sister company CineHyte Films.
Contact:
Hus Entertainment (Shanghai)
Add:Room 302, No.21, JinHuiLiShen, 460Long, Jinhui Road, Shanghai, China
Tel: 021-51109010
Fax: 021-62486979
Email:kinghh2008@gmail.com
Web:www.blog.sina.com.cn/huxehua
Sherwood Hu:huxuehua@163.com
Jane Liu:Lqh5@163.com
