Storm Riders II now in production

From monkeypeaches.com:

“A press conference held yesterday in Hong Kong marks the beginning of the principle shooting of The Storm Riders II. The original The Storm Riders, released 10 years ago, was based on popular Hong Kong comic series Wind Cloud. The story fellows two young warriors, Striding Wind and Whispering Cloud, turning against an evil warlord, who is becoming too invincible to be defeated. Aaron Kwok (Striding Cloud) and Ekin Cheng (Whispering Wind) return for the sequel. Other cast members include Nicholas Tse (as a villain), Charlene Choi, Tang Yan (replacing Shu Qi as Muse) and Simon Yam. The sequel is directed by the Pang Brothers, Danny and Oxide (The Eye). The costumes are designed by Yee Chung-Man (Curse of the Golden Flower). The entire movie will be shot in front of bluescreen, with CG sets and special effects.”

The first film is one of my favorites — and hopefully this sequel will be better than the haphazard amalgam of scenes from the Taiwanese TV series that was released on DVD as “Wind & Cloud: Storm Riders 2”.

BLAKE’S 7 Remake…

(As spotted on and ‘s journals):

The BBC is reporting that UK satellite channel Sky One has given the green light for the development of two 60-minute scripts for a “potential event series” reviving the classic SF series.

Blake’s 7 is one of my all-time favorites — it never made quite as big a splash over here as Doctor Who, but I loved it from the minute I saw my first few episodes on Atlanta’s public TV station in 1988. I’ve recently been working my way through my DVDs of the series, and a 21st-century remake, where the SFX can finally be as brilliant as the writing, would make me very happy. (Hell, Farscape was pretty much a Blake’s 7 remake — one of the reasons why I loved that show, too!)

For the record, my wish list for a remake cast:

Blake: David Morrissey

Avon: Burn Gorman

Servalan: Keeley Hawes — no pic there, but here’s a NSFW shot of her with short dark hair, perfect for Servalan.

Not sure who’d I’d like to see as Villa, Gan, Jenna or the rest of the supporting cast…. your thoughts?