Black and White has arresting cast and budget

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Production News

Double Edge Entertainment Co 得藝國際媒體股份有限公司 has announced its final cast and budget for the highly anticipated action film Black & White Episode I: The Dawn of Assault 痞子英雄首部曲：全面開戰. It launches pre-sales in Tokyo today at TIFFCOM.

Directed by TSAI Yueh-hsun 蔡岳勳, the movie is a prequel to his hit Taiwan TV series of the same name starring Vic CHOU 周渝民 and Mark CHAO 趙又廷. Chou does not appear in the prequel in which Chao plays a rookie police detective.

Chao is joined by China's HUANG Bo 黃渤 (Cow 鬥牛 (2009)), model-turned-actress Angelababy 楊穎 (Hot Summer Days 全城熱戀熱辣辣 (2010)), Terri KWAN 關穎 (Turn Left, Turn Right 向左走・向右走 (2003)) and Ivy CHEN 陳意涵 (Hear Me 聽說 (2009)).

In the film, a young police detective (Chao) needs the help of a retiring gangster to solve a murder; meanwhile, a gangster (Huang) needs the help of the cop to retrieve priceless stolen goods.

One expected highlight of the film is a final set-piece featuring a complete Boeing 747 plane that is being shipped in piece by piece from Los Angeles. The crew includes the stunt team from Taken and visual effects staff from Kill Bill.

Since it was first announced one year ago, the film's budget has doubled to $12 million to match the ambitious script. It will start shooting by the end of the year for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Steve CHICOREL of Double Edge, which has world sales rights, says "we plan to deliver an extremely different sort of modern day action film and the first instalment of what we believe to be a huge franchise."

The original TV series will be broadcast in Japan in February 2011.

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