Seven Swords Director's Cut, Sequels

-- Seven Swords Sequels --

Ciwen Production's honcho Ma Zhong Jun announces that as Tsui Hark's Seven Swords meets their expectations and is an exceptional work of great quality, they are going to shoot the sequels starting from next year. There might be five or six sequels in all, depending on how Tsui Hark conjures up the whole story. But Ma Zhong Jun says that there might be a change of cast. Despite criticisms being levied against the movie especially in its lack of continuity resulting in some confusion (due mainly to movie been drastically reduced in length), it still does quite well at Mainland box-office, making over 26 million yuan in the opening weekend (29 to 31 July). The audiences are basically split rather evenly into three camps, those who favour it, those who are tepid, and those who are disappointed.  Beijing Star Daily

Faced with rampant piracy, GD Face has decided to release the DVD and VCD version of Seven Swords a week ahead of its original schedule of August 14. This Mainland version will only contain Mandarin track and is same as the 2.5 hr theatrical cut. Tsui Hark indicated earlier that he would like to release the 4hr version sometime in the future but so far, Film Workshop has not begun working on it.  Nanfang Daily

-- Seven Swords Director's Cut DVD --

Addressing to the concerns of movie fans, Tsui Hark says that there is a good chance of 4-hr Seven Swords Director's Cut DVD being released, but it depends largely on the distributor. Moreover, it will take quite some time as it would require some rework on post-production. Tsui Hark is also considering recording a 2-hr audio commentary (which may also include comments from the actors, scriptwriters and other production members) in which he talks about how he felt as he began crafting Seven Swords. Meanwhile, he would re-amend the script of Seven Swords 2 based on audience feedback on the first movie, which had made over 61 million yuan in two weeks. In November, Tsui Hark will direct a French production White Phoenix (tentative), which relates to Di Ren Jie of Tang Dynasty. Tsui Hark agreed to take up the production only after they've agreed to let him make changes to the script.  Sina