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News about Ken Watanabe, "The Last Samurai", "Batman Begins" and Ken's other worksNEW!!! Tipsville, August 12, 2004 -- (by Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times) Bat-cast has left Chicago to film last scenes in London [English]NEW!!! Ken Watanabe Appears in Movie About Geisha Girl, Sayuri! -- (Note: correct title of film is Memoirs of a Geisha) [Japanese] English translation on Ken Watanabe Worldwide Fans NEW!!! Batman Begins news on Batman-on-Film.com -- As of August 16th, all major cast have left town and crew is taking last shots of Chicago; footage revealed at convention gets rave reviews [English] NEW!!! The Demon's Head Revealed! First Look at Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins -- Short article, picture, links to more [English} NEW!!! Batman Begins on FilmForce.ign.com -- Find updated news and set reports about Batman Begins [English] NEW!!! Batman Spotted in Chicago -- What's been going on with filming in the "Windy City"; links to actual video and photos [English] NEW!!! The Golden Globes -- Dedicated to Hollywood's Golden Globe Awards [English] NEW!!! Ken Watanabe Voted One of "The World's 50 Most Beautiful People". -- [Japanese] Chow Yun-Fat declines starring role in "Memoirs of a Geisha" -- Has Ken Watanabe been offered the role? That is the rumor! The film adaptation of the popular book has been much anticipated! (There is an earlier article on this section below.) [English] Past news from Academy Awards -- (April 30, 2004) [Japanese] Past news from Academy Awards -- (April 30, 2004) [Japanese] "Hollywood Orient-ation" -- This article on CaliforniaAggie.com is an insightful look into Hollywood's stereotypicical characterization of Asians in film and how things have changed over the years. Some of the articles on this blog seem hyper-sensitive, but it is balanced by great stuff like this! [English] "50 Most Inspiring Asian-Americans of All Time" -- The author says this was so hard to do! This article may be updated over time...can we hope that Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada will make the list in the future? [English] "ASIAN POP: The other 'Samurai' at this year's Oscars" -- One of the articles on this page talks about "Tasogare Seibei" (Twilight Samurai), "The Last Samurai", the Academy Awards and the Asian invasion of Hollywood in general. [English] "Warmer U.S.-Japanese relations mirrored in new class of films that address culture" -- [English] Article (teaser) with Ken about 2004 Academy Awards -- Closeup picture of Ken! [Japanese] FULL article and Interview with Ken Watanabe about Academy Awards -- Fans wish Ken the best as he leaves Narito Airport on February 28th to travel to the United States. Picture of Ken. [Japanese] Nominees: Academy Awards 2004 -- [Japanese] Article about Ken and the 2004 Academy Awards on sanspo.com -- Fans wish Ken the best as he leaves Narito Airport on February 28th to travel to the United States. Picture of Ken. [Japanese] "Indie Impact": Is Warner Brothers' decision not to send out a "screener" for TLS partly responsible for its lack of awards success? -- [English] News about "Memoirs of a Geisha" -- This project is not related to Ken, but several people hope it eventually will be. It has plannned and postponed several times, passing through several directors and screenplay writers. [English] BATMAN! News Page on SuperHeroHype.com -- This website has a nice, organized, regularly updated page of news links, including Batman-on-Film.com articles. Stay tuned for updated news on Batman Begins! [English] Batman-on-Film.com -- This is the website that broke all the great SCOOPS! It is a "rumor" site, but noted to be unusually dependable. ( $ = Confirmed, * = Unconfirmed from trusted source, ? = Unconfirmed ) [English] "Batman Begins" -- Sister site to Batman-on-Film. [English] "Batman Begins" News on Comic Book Movies -- [English] Interview with Ken and Article about his upcoming role in BATMAN -- Talks about his role as Ras Al Ghul, how the avalanche of awards nominations now help him to command a higher fee and probably helped him get the role, and past "huge" actors who have played villans in BATMAN movies. [Japanese] Article: Ken Watanabe as Ras Al Ghul in "Batman Begins" -- [French] Article about "Batman Begins" -- [Italian?] Saturn Awards are May 5th: "The Last Samurai" has 5 nominations -- Here is the Complete List of Nominees. [English] "Last Samurai" Special 2-DVD set to be released May 4th! -- Details about the content of the CDs. Will include interviews with the cast, a director's video journal, deleted scenes, footage from the special on BRAVO, and footage from the special on The History Channel. [English] "Goyer Stoked for BATMAN!" -- Some updates on the movie and a little bit about their talks with the makers of the cominc-book series before deciding how to approach the making of BATMAN Begins. [English] Academy Awards Coverage on movies.go.com -- [English] Supporting Actor Page on movies.go.com -- [English] "Oscars May Hold a Couple of Surprises" -- Article from Reuters. [English] "Scoop: Batman's Devil is in the Details" -- Details on the cast, written teasers about the story...it looks GOOD! [English] Watanabe Gets Evil for "Batman" Pic -- CONFIRMED!!! He IS playing "Ra's Al Ghul"! Details. [English] "Ken Watanabe is Ra's Al Ghul!" -- CONFIRMED!!! He IS playing "Ra's Al Ghul"! Details. [English] "Batman: The Dark Knight Meets the Last Samruai?" -- Note: a question this article raises, who Ken will really play, has already been answered...he is still playing Ra's Al Ghul after all. [English] IT'S TRUE!!! KEN WATANABE TO STAR IN "BATMAN" FILM!!! -- Ken has confirmed he has been offered 1 of 2 villan roles in the upcoming Batman film! [English] Will Ken play a MAJOR role in the new "Batman" film??? -- If you want to see how these scoops have developed, there are links to a few short items in this thread at IMDb.boards [English] "The Unlikliest Hopefuls" -- Article on the New York Post website. NOTE, they kind of misquoted me (that's my joke about the waitress). I put it correctly on my "Quote" page now. It is part of a "Top Ten List" now that we are voting on at Ken Watanbe Worldwide Fans, you need to be a member to vote! [English] Article about and Biography of Ken Watanabe on Japan-Zone.com -- [English] Article about Ken and his busy schedule on Infoseek Japan -- [Japanese] Ken Watanabe takes home Movieline's Hollywood Review's "Breakthrough of the Year" Award! -- [English] "Oscar Nomination Latest Victory for Japan Samurai" -- Reuters (December 12,2004) [English] "Oscar Nomination is Ken Watanabe's Latest Victory" -- Also mentions that Twilight Samurai is up for foreign film! Hiroyuki Sanada ("Ujio" in The Last Samurai) is in Twilight Samurai. [English] On Location for Week 4 of "Suna no Utsuwa": shrine/children -- Ken and his costar prepare to film the 4th installation of "Suna no Utsuwa" at a shrine in Japan; Ken acts as tour guide for a group of local children [Japanese] On Location for Week 4 of "Suna no Utsuwa": in Nita Cho -- Ken, cast, extras and fans; touring and filming in Nita Cho [Japansese] On Location for Week 4 of "Suna no Utsuwa": in Nita Cho -- While preparing for filming, Ken recieves a greeting from the Mayor and a bouquet of flowers in honor of his nomination for the Academy Awards in the United States for his role as "Katsumoto" in "The Last Samurai" [Japanese] "Watanabe Rides Samurai Wave Into Hollywood" -- Interview and article on JapanToday.com. [English] "Samurai Rising"--interview with and article about Ken Watanabe -- [English] "Oscar Nomination Latest Victory for Japan Samurai" -- Reuters [English] "Samurai Guy"--interview with and article about Ken Watanabe -- [English] News about "Gokenin Zankuro" and Interview with Ken Watanabe [Japanese TV drama series] -- (aka The Ninth Son) Includes details on the series and an interview with Ken on his experiences while directing the final run of the Zankuro series. In this exciting period drama series, Ken stars as Zankuru, a highly-skilled swordsman but low-ranking samurai whose family can barely survive on its stipend, especially with his single mother's preference for gourmet food. After a mysterious murder, Zankuru commits himself to solving the mystery...and finds out he can make a lot of money on the side by moonlighting as a virtual superhero. [Japanese] |