Louis Koo Stars in Pang Ho Cheung’s “Red Spider Lily”

After the success of his last two films, Love in the Buff <春嬌與志明>, and Vulgaria <低俗喜劇>, writer and filmmaker, Pang Ho Cheung (彭浩翔), is back with his latest movie Red Spider Lily <曼珠莎華>  (tentative title). It was rumored that both Miriam Yeung (楊千嬅) and Louis Koo (古天樂) only accepted  $1 million HKD paychecks.

Louis Koo Replaces Eason Chan

Even though Pang Ho Cheung’s films have low budgets, many of his films have been massive box office hits, with Vulgaria surpassing the $30 million HKD mark. Riding on this success in Hong Kong market, Red Spider Lily has a budget limit of $18 million HKD. With that in mind, Pang Ho Cheung used his friendship card to get Miriam to accept the job although only paying her $1 million HKD.

In the beginning, Pang Ho Cheung originally wanted Eason Chan (陳奕迅) as his main lead. However, Pang Ho Cheung did not want to pay Eason $2 million HKD. Seeing that Pang Ho Cheung is a rising film producer, Louis took the chance by agreeing to star in the film in hopes of winning a Best Actor Award.  

An insider revealed, “The pay is too low for Eason and his manager didn’t like the role at all. Also, the film’s shooting schedule clashes with Eason’s concert performances, so time would be really tight for him if he accepted. On another note, Louis is actually a big fan of Pang Ho Cheung! That’s why he accepted with a mediocre pay. Also, Louis believes Pan Ho Cheung can get him an award!”

Because of Louis’s desire to win an award, he even dropped his usual pay of $8 to $10 million HKD to participate in Red Spider Lily, causing director and film producer, Johnnie To (杜琪峯), to be furious. Johnnie had to pay Louis $8 million HKD to have him star in the second installment of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart <單身男女> but Louis simultaneously agreed to film for Pang Ho Cheung anyway. As well, it was rumored that Red Spider Lily’s filming takes place before Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 <單身男女 2>, causing Johnnie to be frustrated with the situation.

Miriam Admits Lowered Pay

In response to the news reports, Miriam openly admitted that she reduced her pay from $3 million HKD to $1 million HKD, “Actually, Red Spider Lily was supposed to be filmed before Love in the Buff but since the two films were switched in terms of filming dates, I agreed on the lower price because I already signed the contracts.”  Miriam also clarified that filming in Johnnie’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart already started filming so rumors about schedule clashes were false.  

Pang Ho Cheung also disclosed that Louis and Miriam generously lowered their prices, but refused to admit that he is trying to challenge Johnnie To in box office sales.

Source: Sudden Weekly #941 via ihktv.com

This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.