LATEST NEWS

John Cusack and Mikael Hafstrom Together Again in Shanghai

by Alex Billington
November 27, 2007
Source: Variety

If you saw Stephen King's 1408 this summer, then you're familiar with the work of Swedish filmmaker Mikael Håfström and John Cusack, as the film was primarily just the two working together. They'll be back together again soon, joined by Gong Li, in a film titled Shanghai, which will hopefully shoot in China early next year. The film is a period drama with a script written by Oscar-nominated writer Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove, The Four Feathers, Killshot). The Weinstein Company, the some ones who put out 1408, have finalized the deal and are hoping to get it into production before more strikes next year.

Cusack will play an American who returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

Sounds entertaining, but I'm sure it's going to turn out just as bad as 1408. Listening to that concept alone, I can't really imagine that it could be even the slightest bit better than 1408, which had a much better concept to begin with. I personally hated 1408, which I blame quite a bit on the screenplay and Håfström's inability to make a coherent story out of that mess. Even with John Cusack, there's really nothing Håfström can do to impress me. This sounds like it's going to be another terrible film but I'll hope for something better.

Tweet Pin It

Related categories: Movie News, Opinions