Stephen Chow is an expert at making audiences laugh, but the Hong Kong comedian now wants to make them cry with what he calls a heartwarming family movie about a working-class father, his son _ and an alien who enters their lives.
Chow said Monday that his new movie "CJ7" takes inspiration from American director Steven Spielberg's classic movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," also about an alien's encounters on Earth.
"Steven Spielberg is a very big inspiration. It's not just 'E.T.' Many of his movies are about childhood innocence, more family-oriented," he said at a news conference in Hong Kong.
Chow said he thinks that family movies have the greatest commercial appeal of all genres, but that they are also difficult to execute.
Family movies are rare in the Chinese market, which is dominated by big-budget historical epics featuring big stars, and Chow admitted he wasn't sure how China would react to his latest production.
"The mainland market is just maturing. But it's just starting. So you see movies concentrated on certain genres. But I think the market will become truly diverse eventually," Chow said.
Known for his nonsensical comedy style, Chow said this time he wants to make audiences teary-eyed.
"What is heartwarming? Let me explain what heartwarming means concretely. It means it makes people cry," he said.
"CJ7," which will be released in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China on Jan. 31, was financed by Chow's production company Star Overseas, China's state-run China Film Group and Columbia Pictures Asia, which bought the movie's distribution rights outside of China.
He declined to reveal the budget, saying only that the movie was expensive to produce. Chinese movie budgets have crept up in recent years to tens of millions of U.S. dollars (euros).
Chow's previous movies include "Shaolin Soccer" (2001) and "Kung Fu Hustle" (2004), which made more than 16 million Chinese yuan (US$2.2 million) in China, according to Star Overseas.
Chow joked that it took him three years after "Kung Fu Hustle" to make another movie because he was "lazy."
"It's not that it takes me three years to make a movie. If I focus on a movie, one year is a reasonable time," he said.
Chow said Monday that his new movie "CJ7" takes inspiration from American director Steven Spielberg's classic movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," also about an alien's encounters on Earth.
"Steven Spielberg is a very big inspiration. It's not just 'E.T.' Many of his movies are about childhood innocence, more family-oriented," he said at a news conference in Hong Kong.
Chow said he thinks that family movies have the greatest commercial appeal of all genres, but that they are also difficult to execute.
Family movies are rare in the Chinese market, which is dominated by big-budget historical epics featuring big stars, and Chow admitted he wasn't sure how China would react to his latest production.
"The mainland market is just maturing. But it's just starting. So you see movies concentrated on certain genres. But I think the market will become truly diverse eventually," Chow said.
Known for his nonsensical comedy style, Chow said this time he wants to make audiences teary-eyed.
"What is heartwarming? Let me explain what heartwarming means concretely. It means it makes people cry," he said.
"CJ7," which will be released in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China on Jan. 31, was financed by Chow's production company Star Overseas, China's state-run China Film Group and Columbia Pictures Asia, which bought the movie's distribution rights outside of China.
He declined to reveal the budget, saying only that the movie was expensive to produce. Chinese movie budgets have crept up in recent years to tens of millions of U.S. dollars (euros).
Chow's previous movies include "Shaolin Soccer" (2001) and "Kung Fu Hustle" (2004), which made more than 16 million Chinese yuan (US$2.2 million) in China, according to Star Overseas.
Chow joked that it took him three years after "Kung Fu Hustle" to make another movie because he was "lazy."
"It's not that it takes me three years to make a movie. If I focus on a movie, one year is a reasonable time," he said.
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