Thu, 17 May 2012 15:59 PM (HKT)

Lau knows What Women Want

Andy Lau Tak Wah

By Patrick Frater

Fri, 19 March 2010, 13:15 PM (HKT)

Production News

Asian superstar Andy Lau (劉德華) will star in the Chinese remake of What Women Want (我知女人心), the 2000 Nancy Meyers comedy romance that starred Mel Gibson as a chauvinistic ad exec who after an accident was able to read the minds of the opposite sex.

The new film is expected to shoot from May with actor-director Chen Daming (陳大明, One Foot Off The Ground 雞犬不寧) in the director's seat. Delivery is timed for February 2011, which gives it a shot of releasing into the peak Chinese New Year (3 Feb 2011) holiday season and Valentine's Day (14 Feb).

The producers are in advanced talks to sign the prolific Fan Bingbing (范冰冰) into the Helen Hunt role.

"While the plot structure has been kept close to the original, the new film will take a look at social dynamics and workplace relations between men and women in China in a humorous way that has rarely been seen in Chinese movies," said producer Dede Nickerson. She is a Beijing-based former Weinstein Company executive who has been a long time consultant at Paramount, the studio which released the original Women.

The film, which has a budget just under $5 million, is bankrolled and produced by Bona Group, the Shanghai production and distribution combine.

Production credits are likely to go to Nickerson, Chen and Bona's Yu Dong (于冬).

Bona's Poly Bona subsidiary will handle distribution of Women in China, while Hong Kong-based film sales agency Distribution Workshop (發行工作室) will handle licensing in the rest of the world. Paramount is not currently part of the funding-production-distribution mix, but may come in at a later stage.

Lau, rated as one of the four 'Heavenly Kings' of the Cantopop music scene, has consistently been one of Asia's most successful actors, appearing in films including As Tears Goes By (旺角卡門), The House of Flying Daggers (十面埋伏) and Infernal Affairs (無間道).

Mainland Chinese beauty Fan previously co-starred with Lau in hit Battle of Wits (墨攻). They are also re-paired in upcoming Future X-Cops (未來警察)and Shaolin (新少林寺), the big budget Benny Chan (陳木勝) actioner that is now shooting.