Is Donnie Yen going to be in "Star Wars VIII"?
6 Jul - "Jurassic World", "Avengers: Age of Ultron", "Fast and Furious 7" are all movies that have been screened in China which have helped in their box office collections immensely. Now, it looks like "Star Wars VIII" has found its golden ticket in the form of Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen.
The sudden casting news comes from Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily, which reports that the "Ip Man" star would be in London next month to film scenes for the eight instalment of the Space Opera film directed by Rian Johnson.
The only actor thus far confirmed for the May 2017 dated movie is Oscar Isaac who will also appear in J.J. Abrams' "Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens" releasing in December this year.
If this turns out to be true, then 51-year-old Yen has reportedly beat out other Chinese actors like Wang Lee Hom, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Daniel Wu, Jet Li and Chang Chen to play a yet to be named Jedi character.
No stranger to acting in Hollywood movies, Yen has appeared in "Blade II" in 2002 and "Shanghai Knights" in 2003, amongst others.
With Yen who is immensely popular not only in China but with fans all over in Asia, "Star Wars VIII" could probably look at the box office numbers from China alone being something like; "Fast and Furious 7's" USD390 million, "Avengers: Age of Ultron's" USD240 million and "Jurassic World's" USD206 million.
Before "Star Wars VIII" releases in 2017, there will be another spin-off film slated for December 2016; "Star Wars: Rogue One", directed by Gareth Edwards starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed and Ben Mendelsohn.
