Valkyrie

There are no discernibly nasty Nazis in “Valkyrie,” though Hitler and Goebbels skulk about in a few scenes, shooting dark, ominous looks at the heroic German Army officer played by Tom Cruise.

Perhaps they’re wondering what this Hollywood megastar is doing in their midst, a sentiment that you may come to share while watching Mr. Cruise — who gives a fine, typically energetic performance in a film that requires nothing more of him than a profile and vigor — strut about as one of history’s more enigmatic players. That enigma was Claus von Stauffenberg, a count and a colonel who, though he lost one eye, an entire hand and several fingers while fighting on behalf of the Reich, made several attempts to assassinate Hitler and seize control of the government.

At the core of Stauffenberg’s spectacularly ambitious plot was Valkyrie, Hitler’s plan for the mobilization of the home army that Stauffenberg hoped to hijack in order to quash the SS and its leaders. It didn’t work, of course, for complicated reasons, though also because by 1944, as William L. Shirer bluntly puts it in “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” the conspirators were “terribly late.” Most of the crucial rebellious officers are played by British actors, while some of the Nazi diehards are played by Germans, which wouldn’t be worth mentioning if this cacophony of accents weren’t so distracting. But, as with the casting of Mr. Cruise, whose German voice-over quickly eases into English, this international acting community invokes an earlier studio age, when Peter Lorre and Claude Rains delivered their lines in exotically flavored English and everyone pretended that Rick’s Cafe really was located in Casablanca and not on a back lot.

If Mr. Cruise doesn’t work in “Valkyrie,” it’s partly because he’s too modern, too American and way too Tom Cruise to make sense in the role, but also because what passes for movie realism keeps changing, sometimes faster than even a star can change his brand. Though Mr. Singer’s old-fashioned movie habits, his attention to the gloss, gleam and glamour of the image, can be agreeably pleasurable, he tends to gild every lily. Hitler (David Bamber) doesn’t need spooky music or low camera angles to be villainous: he just has to show up. Mr. Singer’s fondness for exaggeration can even undercut his strongest scenes, as when Stauffenberg visits Hitler to secure approval for the rewritten Valkyrie plan. If implemented, the plan will bring down the Führer who, for his part, seems intent on bringing down the house with leers and popping eyeballs. Mr. Singer appears to have taken cues here from “Black Book,” Paul Verhoeven’s World War II romp, but he’s too serious to make such vaudeville work.

Badtime Stories

Hotel handyman Skeeter Bronson's life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true. He attempts to take advantage of the phenomenon, incorporating his own aspirations into one outlandish tale after another, but it's the kids' unexpected contributions that turn Skeeter's life upside down.

BEDTIME STORIES is an adventure comedy starring ADAM SANDLER as Skeeter Bronson, a hotel handyman whose life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true. When he tries to help his family by telling one outlandish tale after another, it's the kids' unexpected contributions that turn all of their lives upside down.

Skeeter’s pique (though he may not know it) is reserved for his dead father, an inept businessman whose cozy motel once occupied the lot where Skeeter’s current employer has erected an upscale resort. Gone, along with the homespun vibe, is Skeeter’s dream of one day running the property; so when his divorced sister, Wendy (a frighteningly taut Courteney Cox), asks him to baby-sit for his young niece and nephew (Laura Ann Kesling and Jonathan Morgan Heit) for a few days, Skeeter is in no mood to play scallywag uncle.

“I don’t believe in happy endings,” he tells his incredulous charges when story time comes around. Luckily for the tykes, their director, Adam Shankman, loves them, the happier the better. (Even as a guest judge on “So You Think You Can Dance” Mr. Shankman, a popular choreographer, squirmed mightily to avoid delivering a bad critique.) Rolling up his sleeves and piling on the digital effects, he labors to whip life into a screenplay (by Matt Lopez and Tim Herlihy) so tired even Bugsy, the children’s pop-eyed guinea pig, is moved to tuck himself into bed.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Explores the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans.

The Underworld series gets the prequel treatment with this third outing that fleshes out the story of the ancient war between the vampiric Death Dealers and their werewolf counterparts, the Lycans. F/X technician Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Independence Day) steps out of the effects lab and into the director's chair with this entry, which sees stars Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy returning, with series newcomer Rhona Mitra also joining the cast.

"Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" delves into the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires, known as Death Dealers, and the barbaric Lycans (werewolves). A young Lycan, Lucian (Michael Sheen), emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Bill Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has persecuted them for hundreds of years. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, the beautiful vampire Sonja (Rhona Mitra), in his battle to free the Lycans from their brutal enslavement.

The prequel story traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. In the Dark Ages, a young Lycan named Lucian (Sheen) emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has enslaved them. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, Sonja (Mitra), in his battle against the Death Dealer army and his struggle for Lycan freedom.

Yes Man

A man signs up for a self-help program based on one simple principle: say yes to everything... and anything. At first, unleashing the power of "yes" transforms his life in amazing and unexpected ways, but he soon discovers that opening up his life to endless possibilities can have its drawbacks.

At the beginning of “Yes Man,” Carl Allen is a grouch, a curmudgeon, a wet blanket. His relentless negativity — his job as a loan officer provides him with plenty of opportunities to say no — is less a matter of temperament than of circumstance: apparently Carl never recovered from the breakup of his marriage.

But then a visit to a self-help seminar led by a guru (Terence Stamp) who preaches the power of yes transforms Carl into a wild, unpredictable fellow, a giddy, spontaneous goofball, a gangling, motormouthed, rubber-faced id. In short, Carl turns into Jim Carrey.

But “Yes Man,” dutifully directed by Peyton Reed (“Bring It On,” “Down With Love”) is too sluggish and slapdash a vehicle for its star’s prodigious wackiness. “Yes Man” rarely rises to genuine hilarity. It takes no risks, finds no inspiration and settles, like its hero, into a dull, noncommittal middle ground. Should you see this movie? Maybe. Whatever. I don’t care.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is based on the book Q and A written by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Loveleen Tandan began as the film's casting director but was appointed by Boyle as a "co-director".

The film, shot and set in India, follows a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on a game show and exceeds people's expectations, raising the suspicions of the game show host and law enforcement. Following screenings at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a limited release on 12 November 2008 to critical acclaim and awards success.

Jamal Malik, a former street child from Mumbai, is being interrogated by the police. He is a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? , and has made it to the final question but has been accused of cheating.

The explanation of how he knew the answers leads us through the history of his short but full life, including scenes of obtaining the autograph of a famous Bollywood star (Amitabh Bachchan); the death of his mother during an anti-Muslim raid on the slums; and how he and his brother Salim befriended an orphaned girl, Latika. Jamal refers to Salim and himself as Athos and Porthos, and Latika as the third Musketeer of which they do not know the name.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American film, very loosely based on the 1921 short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by David Fincher, written by Eric Roth, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film was released on December 25, 2008.

The elderly Daisy (Blanchett) is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches in August 2005. She asks her daughter Caroline (Ormond) to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button (Pitt). Caroline begins to read as the story transitions to Benjamin's point of view.

On November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of the Great War, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical limitations of a man who is 86 years old. The mother of the baby dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button, takes the baby and abandons him on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie (Henson) and Tizzy (Ali), an African-American couple who work at the nursing home, find the baby. Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own, against Tizzy's wishes. She names the baby Benjamin.

Over the course of the story, Benjamin begins to physically grow younger. In 1930, while still appearing to be in his seventies, he meets a young Daisy (Fanning), whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. The children play together and listen to Daisy's grandmother read from a storybook. A few years later, Benjamin goes to work on a tugboat on the docks of New Orleans for Captain Mike (Jared Harris). In their free time, the captain takes him to brothels and bars. For the first time, he meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. Later, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement. Before he leaves, Daisy makes him promise to write to her from "everywhere".

Marley & Me

To watch “Marley & Me,” the bland, obsequious adaptation of John Grogan’s best-selling memoir of his up-and-down relationship with an unruly Labrador retriever, is to tune in to an era that seems so close and yet so distant. In those naïve old days — the 1990s through the first part of this century — Florida real estate boomed, newspapers flourished and the heavens rained money.

Because the movie, directed by David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”), plays by the rules of Hollywood, John and Jenny Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston), never age. The Grogans, golden-fleeced journalists, move from Kalamazoo, Mich., to West Palm Beach, Fla., where they adopt a yellow Lab that John names Marley (after Bob). Except for the occasional thunderstorm that freaks out the neurotic dog, the weather in Florida is always sunny with low humidity.

Later in the movie, after nearly a decade and a half have passed and the Grogans and their three model children have moved to a greeting-card perfect stone house with a barn in rural Pennsylvania, the years seem not to have touched them. Mr. Wilson’s blond surfer locks remain unflecked with gray. The waistline of Ms. Aniston’s Jenny, after bearing three children, shows no sign of a bulge.

Although the Grogans have their spats, one of which drives John temporarily out of the house, the screenplay glosses over their domestic crises to convey the fantasy of a marriage that is mostly smooth sailing, save for Jenny’s exhaustion after the birth of their third child. (The possibility of post-partum depression is cautiously broached, then dropped as though too hot to handle.) Most of the time the Grogans get along fine, largely because John is a laid-back dude verging on a doormat. As for the couple’s romantic chemistry, there is plenty of cuddling but little heat.

The Oxford Murders (film)

The Oxford Murders
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Álex de la Iglesia
Produced by	Kevin Loader Gerardo Herrero
Written by	Jorge Guerricaechevarria (screenplay) Álex de la Iglesia (screenplay) Guillermo Martínez (novel)
Starring	Elijah Wood John Hurt Leonor Watling
Distributed by	Odeon Sky Filmworks, Tornasol Films
Country	UK Spain
Language	English
Budget	$14.1 million
IMDb

The Oxford Murders is a 2008 thriller film adapted from an award-winning novel of the same name by the Argentine mathematician and writer Guillermo Martínez, directed by Álex de la Iglesia and starring Elijah Wood, John Hurt and Leonor Watling.

Plot

The plaster cast of Trajan's Column at the Victoria and Albert is discussed in the film.

November 1993. Wood plays Martin, an American student at the University of Oxford who wants Arthur Seldom (Hurt) as his thesis supervisor. He idolises Seldom and has learnt all about him. He takes rooms in Oxford at the house of an old lady who is an old friend of Seldom. Also in the house is the old lady's daughter, who is her full-time carer.

In a public lecture, Seldom quotes Wittgenstein's Tractatus to deny the possibility of absolute truth. Hoping to impress his idol, Martin disputes this, asserting his faith in the absolute truth of mathematics. Seldom humiliates him, ridiculing his arguments and making him look foolish in front of the audience. Disillusioned, Martin decides to abandon his studies and goes to his office to collect his belongings. There, he encounters his office-mate, a disillusioned mathematician Podorov (Burn Gorman), who also failed to become a student of Seldom's.

Martin then returns to his digs, where he finds Seldom arriving to visit his old friend, the old lady. The two men enter the house together and find Martin's landlady murdered. Seldom tells the police that he had received a note with his friend's address marked as "the first of a series". As Seldom is an authority on logical series, he suspects that a serial murderer is using murder as a way to challenge his intelligence. Martin and Seldom discuss how easily the murder of the old lady might have been overlooked, particularly as she already suffered from terminal cancer, and Martin suggests that the murderer is committing 'imperceptible murders'.

Martin, Seldom and Lorna, a Spanish nurse with whom Martin has struck up a relationship, try to solve the mathematical clues as the murders continue. They have to contend with police suspicion, a rising body count and tensions between the three of them. There is a wide range of suspects, from the three principal characters to the mathematician and the old lady's daughter. The solution lies in the mathematical concepts, but there are many twists along the way as Martin learns the truths behind reality.

Mathematical and philosophical references

The characters debate several mathematical and philosophical concepts such as logical series, Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty, Gödel's Theorem, circles, the Vesica Piscis, the possibility of perfect crime, "Fermat"'s Last Theorem and its proof by "Professor Wiles", the Taniyama conjecture, the tetraktys and the Pythagoreans. There are references, also, of the butterfly effect.

Production

Filming at the White Horse pub, Oxford, 22 March 2007.

The film is a Spanish-French-British production directed by Spanish Álex de la Iglesia. Before the confirmation of Elijah Wood in the film, the Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal had been considered for the role of the mathematics student. There were some weeks of speculation on who would play the lead. On 26 December 2006 Tornasol Films announced that Wood was cast in the lead role. The director Alex de la Iglesia commented that he convinced Wood to accept the role for the script. De la Iglesia also praised Wood: “I'm delighted to work with Elijah, who undoubtedly has the most powerful eyes in the industry and who is perfect for the part”.

The British actor John Hurt was cast in the role of a professor of the University, who helps the young student in his quest to try to stop a series of murders. The actor Michael Caine had been considered for this role.

De la Iglesia described daily in his blog the peculiar situations that happened during the production of the film. The film is his first foray outside his typical black comedy genre into more dramatic fare.^[1][2][3][4]

Filming began on 22 January 2007 and finished on 24 March, with locations in Oxford and the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. It was picked up for UK release by Odeon Sky Filmworks, opening on 25 April 2008. So far, the release date for the US is unknown.

Cast

• Elijah Wood - Martin, an American student
• John Hurt - Arthur Seldom, a British authority on logical series.
• Leonor Watling - Lorna, a Spanish nurse
• Julie Cox - Beth Eagleton, a musician, daughter of Mrs. Eagleton.
• Dominique Pinon - Frank, father of an ill girl waiting for an organ transplant (engrossed in Neopythagoreanism).
• Burn Gorman - Yuri Ivanovich Podorov, a crank mathematician.
• Jim Carter - Inspector Petersen
• Anna Massey - Mrs. Julia Eagleton, Martin's landlady and Seldom's friend.
• Alex Cox - Kalman, a demented mathematician

Ip Man (film)

Ip Man
Promotional poster
Directed by	Wilson Yip
Produced by	Raymond Wong
Written by	Edmond Wong
Starring	Donnie Yen Simon Yam Lam Ka-Tung Hiroyuki Ikeuchi Xing Yu Fan Siu-Wong Lynn Hung Wong You-Nam
Music by	Kenji Kawai
Cinematography	O Sing-Pui
Editing by	Cheung Ka-Fai
Distributed by	Mandarin Films Distribution Co. Ltd. Cathay-Keris Films Innoform Media
Release date(s)	China: 12 December 2008 Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand: 18 December 2008
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese Japanese
Budget	HK$40 million
Gross revenue	HK$20.4 million
Official website • IMDb

Ip Man (traditional Chinese: 葉問; simplified Chinese: 叶问; pinyin: Yè Wèn; Cantonese Yale: Yip Man) is a 2008 Hong Kong martial arts biopic that is based on the life of Ip Man, the celebrated martial arts master of Bruce Lee, and the first to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun openly. The film focuses on events surrounding Yip that took place in Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung. Ip's two sons, Ip Chun and Ip Ching, along with several Wing Chun practitioners also appear in the film.

Ip Man is the first film to be based on the life of the martial artist. After a first attempt to portray Ip's life on screen resulted in the project being abandoned, producer Raymond Wong developed his own film with full consent from Ip's sons, and had filmmakers head to Foshan, to research Master Ip's life. Ip Chun, Ip Man's eldest son served as a consultant for the film. Donnie Yen, who was set to star in the abandoned film project, received a star fee and was invited to join Wong's production after a successful collaboration with director Wilson Yip on the 2007 film Flash Point.

From March to August 2008, principal photography took place in Shanghai, which was used to architecturally recreate Foshan. During filming, conflict arose between producers and film director Wong Kar-wai over the film's working title, Grandmaster Yip Man (一代宗师葉問). Wong had intended on making his own film based on the life of Ip Man tentatively titled The Great Master (一代宗师). To settle the dispute, filmmakers of Ip Man changed their title, and it was later revealed that Wong's five-year rights to make the Ip Man biopic had expired.

Ip Man was released in Hong Kong on 18 December 2008, ^[1] receiving widespread acclaim from both critics and audiences. The film was also released in New Zealand, and was the first country to release the Cantonese version due to time zone differences.

Plot

Ip Man is adapted from the life story of Yip Man, the grandmaster of the Wing Chun style of kung fu and sifu of legendary kung fu superstar Bruce Lee. This film will be the first important record of the master's life.

Cast

Actor	Role
Donnie Yen	Ip Man
Simon Yam	Chow Ching-Chuen
Fan Siu-Wong	Jin Shan Zhao
Lynn Hung	Zhang Yong Cheng
Lam Ka-Tung	Li Zhao
Li Ze	Ip Chun
Xing Yu	Master Zealot Lin
Wong You-Nam	Shao Dan Yuan
Li Qi-Long	Green Dragon
Chen Zhi-Hui	Master Liao
Zhou Zhong	Master He
To Yu-Hang	Hu Wei
Hiroyuki Ikeuchi	Miura

Production

"We wanted to do this movie because Ip Man was a man who inspired the world and society as a whole. He was a man who believed in certain morals and principles, and we want to use this movie as a platform to convey those values to the audience. For me, that was the most important part of making this movie,” ——Director Wilson Yip on making Ip Man.[2]

Ip Man is the first film to be based on the life on the famous martial artist Ip Man. It also marks the fourth film collaboration between director Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen after 2007's Flash Point. The two also reunite with Simon Yam after 2005's SPL: Sha Po Lang. The screenplay was written by Edmond Wong, the writer of 2006's Dragon Tiger Gate, which was Yip and Yen's second collaboration as director and star respectively. Ip Man was produced and distributed by Mandarin Films, with Shanghai Film Group serving as a co-producer and Raymond Wong Pak-Ming serving as a producer. Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Chun, served as a consultant for the film. The film's budget is an estimated HK$40 million. ^[3]

Development

The film was originally conceived in 1998, when Jeffrey Lau teamed up with Corey Yuen to bring the story of Ip Man to the big screen. Donnie Yen signed on to the project in hopes of playing Ip Man, with Stephen Chow as Bruce Lee. Yen had signed the contract and received part of the acting fee. However, the studio producing the original project folded resulting in the project being abandoned.^[4]

In December 2007, plans to make a new Ip Man film was announced with the filmmakers researching Ip's life in Foshan. Collin Chou was also said to be a part of the cast. Producer Raymond Wong stated that the film would take on a similar look and feel as SPL.^[5]

Filming

Production began in March 2008, and wrapped up by the end of August. 90% of the film focuses on events surrounding Ip Man that took place in Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Since the buildings in today's Foshan are architecturally different from the ones in the past, the filmmakers decided to shoot the film in Shanghai instead. ^{[4] [6] [7]}

Principal photography first took place in a storeroom in the industrial district of Shanghai. Having difficulties scouting a cotton factory suitable for shooting, set designers decided to recreate one in the style of the 1930s. They spent weeks transforming an abandoned storeroom into the Zhen Hua Cotton Mill Factory, a 1930s cotton mill factory founded by Ip Man’s friend Chow Ching-Chuen (played in the film by Simon Yam) during the Japanese Occupation of China. It was also the place where Ip first taught Wing Chun. Art director Kenneth Mak, who has frequently collaborated with director Wilson Yip, included Western elements in his design, since Foshan, in early republican years, was a unique place where Chinese and Western cultures would converge. Pillars were made to resemble English lampposts and Western lighting, chairs and tableware were used. The building was made to look obsolete and worn-out as suits the difficult circumstances under Japanese Occupation to convey the culture and feel of the time. Apart from historical references, Mak also created a glass house in the factory.^[8]

Fight choreography

"...his biggest achievement lies in playing a true historical figure, unlike fictitious characters he had been doing in the past...he'd have to try his best to understand the thoughts of Yip Man, to be him, and to fit in within the past." ——Director Wilson Yip on Donnie Yen being cast as Ip Man.[4]

The martial arts scenes were choreographed by Sammo Hung, who had previously collaborated with Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen as an actor for the 2005 film SPL: Sha Po Lang. ^[4] Hung was hired as a choreographer mainly because of his experience on the 1978 film Warriors Two and 1982's The Prodigal Son, both of which involved the style of Wing Chun. ^[2] When asked how he would work with Yen to direct the action scenes, Hung replied matter-of-factly, "With my mouth." ^[4]

Yen has described the role being the most difficult in his career, both emotionally and mentally. ^[2] He spent months preparing for the role, by going on a strict diet which consisted of mainly vegetables and eating one meal a day, training in Wing Chun, and learning more about Ip Man through his two sons, all in hopes of portraying an erudite and cultured Ip Man, as well as bringing out the special traits of Wing Chun.^{[4] [9]} He even went as far as to stay in character after filming, wearing his costume and changing his voice and movement patterns. ^[2]

While rehearsing a fight scene, Yen was reportedly injured when an axe wielder accidentally slashed the side of his left eye. ^[9] Yen also admitted to having a masseur on set as he could not physically raise his shoulder for the fight scenes.^[10]

Japanese actor Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, who holds a black belt in Judo, described it to be "difficult" working under Hung's command. In one scene, he suffered a mild concussion after receiving four blows continuously. ^[11] Hung later praised Yen and Ikeuchi's performances in the film, even though the Japanese actor was not trained in Chinese martial arts and was not given a lot of complex moves.

Film title controversy

The film gained controversy over its film title, which was disputed by film director Wong Kar-wai, who announced plans to make his own film on Ip Man with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai while filming 2046. Wong Kar-wai had planned his own Yip Man biopic titled The Great Master (一代宗师), with Leung in the lead role.^[4] Wong Kar-Wai's film, however, had been in development hell, having been announced several years earlier.^{[4] [4]} Producer Raymond Wong wanted to name his film Grandmaster Yip Man, which bore a resemblance to the title Wong Kar-Wai wanted to use for his film.^[12]

After Raymond Wong announced his title, Wong Kar-wai's production company, Jet Tone Films, issued a statement saying that they had exclusive rights to the Chinese title of the film and that it is "shameful" that Raymond Wong was using it. They also denied Donnie Yen's claim that ten years ago, Wong Kar-wai and Jeffrey Lau asked him to play Ip Man.^[12]

To settle the dispute, Raymond Wong publicly expressed the film title:^[4]

“

Actually, all along, we have called our film Ip Man, but our mainland investors said that Yip Man was a great master of his times, so we changed our title to Grandmaster Yip Man out of respect for him. Yet, this brought about a series of debates over the title. To settle this matter amicably, after discussions with our various investors, movie consultant Yip Chun, and director Wilson Yip, we changed back to our original title.

”

It was later announced that Wong Kar-wai's five-year rights to make the Ip Man biopic had expired and that Mandarin Films had stepped in with their film.^[13]

Working titles

• The Legend of Yip Man (traditional Chinese: 葉問傳)
• Grandmaster Yip Man (traditional Chinese: 一代宗師葉問)

Reception

Ip Man was given a test screening in Beijing on December 4, 2008. The film was highly praised, based on survey sheets returned by the audience. Donnie Yen's portrayal of Ip Man was repeatedly hailed as the year's best performance. As a traditional martial arts film, Ip Man's fight scenes were awarded 8 to 9 out of 10 by 85% of the audience, while full marks were given by the remaining 15%. High praise was also given to the film's co-stars, Fan Siu-Wong, Lam Ka-Tung, and Lynn Hung. ^[14]

Box office

On the week of 18 December to December 21, Ip Man came in first place at the box office, grossing nearly HK$4.5 million (US$579,715) in Hong Kong, having been released in 37 screens. The film had topped its American competitors Twilight and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa which came in second and third place respectively.^[15] Ip Man topped the Singapore and Malaysian box office the same week as well. To date, the film has grossed over HK$ 20.4 million at the Hong Kong box office.

Sequel

Mandarin Films Ltd. has greenlighted a sequel to Ip Man. Prior to its theatrical release, a sequel for Ip Man was announced by producer Raymond Wong. While promoting the motion picture soundtrack for Ip Man, Wong had revealed that the sequel, tentatively titled Ip Man 2 would continue Ip Man's story, focusing on his migration to Hong Kong and his four disciples which includes Bruce Lee to propogate his discipline of Wing Chun. Bruce Lee would also be a major character in the film.^[16] The sequel's budget is an estimated HK$40 million, and Mandarin Films is aiming for a release towards the end of 2010. ^[17]

Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip are set to return for the second installment, and are reportedly planning a worldwide talent scout for a suitable candidate to play Lee, who is Ip's most celebrated disciple. They are also debating over whether to look for an actor with solid martial arts foundation or looks.^[18] At the Beijing gala premiere of Ip Man, Wilson Yip announced he intends to make an Ip Man franchise.^[19]