newsmakers

newsmakers

Chinese director defends new project

HONG KONG

A Golden Lion- winning Chinese director best known for portraying working-class struggles defended Saturday his decision to try his hand at commercial cinema as he prepares to make his first kung-fu epic.

Jia Zhangke made his name with realist films that describe how China’s youth and workers cope with the country’s rapid economic growth.

The 40-year-old filmmaker won the top prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival with “Still Life,” a drama set against the destruction of a Chinese village to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

But now Jia, whose credits also include “Pickpocket, “The Platform” and “The World,” is getting ready to shoot a big-budget martial-arts epic set at the beginning of the 20th century.

The native of the northern city of Fenyang says the budget will be at least several million U.S. dollars — huge for the once underground director — and he will hire a Hong Kong fight choreographer. Veteran Hong Kong director Johnnie To, best known for his stylish action thrillers, is his producer.

Critics are wondering if Jia is abandoning his roots.

It’s the same charge that was leveled at Jia’s predecessors such as Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.

Chen and Zhang won critical acclaim in the West with stark stories of rural hardship but have gravitated toward commercial blockbusters in recent years.

Rapper T.I.’s wife faces drug charge

LOS ANGELES

Prosecutors have charged rapper T.I.’s wife with one count of misdemeanor drug possession stemming from an arrest last month on the Sunset Strip.

Prosecutors charged Tameka Cottle with possession of ecstasy Friday, and she is due in court for an arraignment Monday in Beverly Hills.

The 35-year-old was arrested along with her husband Sept. 1 during a traffic stop.

It was not immediately clear whether Cottle had an attorney.

Associated Press