Aaron Kwok Replaces Donnie Yen as “The Monkey King”
Donnie Yen’s (甄子丹) The Monkey King <西遊記之天鬧天宮> was released in January and earned approximately 1.53 billion RMB in the Mainland box office, becoming the third highest grossing Chinese film of all time. Originally playing the Bull Demon King, Aaron Kwok (郭富城) is rumored to replace Donnie Yen (甄子丹) as Sun Wukong in the second film, which will start filming in Wuxi at the end of November.
Since Donnie already has film projects including Ip Man 3 <葉問3> lined up until next year, he is unable to return for the sequel to The Monkey King.
Aaron’s manager stated, “Aaron will take part in the second film of The Monkey King, but the details and character will be officially announced by the production company.” Although not confirmed, Aaron has shared several photos of himself as the Monkey King on his Sina Weibo blog. His portrayal of the famed character will capitalize on his agility due to his dance background.
Gong Li as the White Skeleton Demon
The second film will focus on the story of the White Skeleton Demon, who will be portrayed by Gong Li (鞏俐). Allegedly, William Feng (馮紹峰) will play the Holy Monk, Xiao Shen Yang (小瀋陽) will play Pigsy, and Hu Ge (胡歌) will play the Dragon Horse.
Additional details of the project will be kept secret to heighten anticipation for the film, which is scheduled for a 2016 release. The staff will utilize new makeup techniques and computer-generated animation to produce the best results. The design of the Skeleton Demon will be the highlight of the film.
The film’s largest investor, Huang Haifeng (王海峰), declared his intentions of producing a total of eight films related to the story of Journey to the West.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Good replacement choice…
Well, you wouldn’t be able to tell who’s the person under the monkey make-up after all. I personally prefer him staying as Bull demon. He ‘s too sexy for the monkey look.
Btw, looks like the cast for the sequel is not as anticipating as the original one. Even though the film itself is extremely boring, but just the heavyweight cast alone with 3 A-list movie stars sells. The sequel, well at least they have Gong Li.. and maybe Xiao Shen Yang.
funny…but true. with all the monkey ‘hair’, I would not be able to see Aaron Kwok. good choice to use Aaron as he is agile.
Hu Ge! I’m in….. aaron as monkey king is perfect because i was not feeling donnie as monkey king…. hope this is true….
Hu Ge is overrated and not as good as claimed. I dislike him in the SOTD can’t root for him at all. EP is much better!
lol you make it sound like he’s the talk of the town…. I think hes doing a fine job playing jiu ye… sorry off topic
I think Donnie’s performance was phenomenal and proved that he can be a great actor when he wants to. But in all honesty, that film is not the kind I want to see him in. Trying out something new once is enough and admirable of attempting but that’s it. He should improve his acting in films he belongs in: films like Ip Man and SPL.
He’s been making fun of others filming variants of Ip Man and vowed not to make another sequel of that movie. But then now he is eating his words and film another one.
How is saying that doing too much Yip Man films making fun of other variants of Ip Man? He pointed out that he wants to wait till the hype dies down and a believable script is written before he makes the third film. Plus I’ve read most of his recent interviews and he doesn’t even say such a thing. If he’s eating his words than we would’ve seen Ip Man 3 right after part 2 by now, and seen him do this sequel.
From the buffalo to the monkey. There are 6 more for him to try different roles.
wow gong li i cant wait! first movie was ok didnt really rate it.
Hu Ge! im down!
wow! what a cast! Is Chow Yunfat not included because of the boycott?
Gong Li need to slim down for White Skeleton Demon role.
Why not Dicky Cheung?
dicky would have been an excellent choice. however, he hasn’t been that famous in the past 10 years. he may not have the same connections as aaron or other big name stars anymore. too sad. he’s phenomenal.
Whatever happened to cold war 2????
Let’s hope it isn’t as boring as the first installation. Need to stop being too arty farty like making the beautiful Nuwa into a shampoo girl advertisting.
How about let Mighty Thor make a guess appearance coming to the rescue of Moneky on this one and then Monkey can make a guess appearance in the next Marvic Comic installation of either Thor or the Avengers.. Good Idea?
Even though Donnie naturally looks like a monkey ( not much makeup needed), I think Aaron is a good choice since he can actually ACT and has a dancing background to pull off the weird monkey moves.
I might actually watch this one now that Donnie isn’t in it.
I think they should find someone else to replace Donnie Yen as The Monkey King in The Monkey King 2. Cause in The Monkey King 1 Aaron Kwok was already play the Bull Demon King and in part 2 if they put Aaron to be Monkey King that don’t match from part one. They should find someone else to replace Donnie Yen.