Angie Chiu’s Son, Wesley Wong, Auditions for “Transformers 4”
Filming for Sino-American production, Transformers 4, is already underway. Aside from Li Bingbing (李冰冰) starring in a major role, the casting for four other Chinese characters will be determined through a reality show. Many of China’s rising talents have auditioned, including Yan Kuan (嚴寬), Peter Ho (何潤東), Kimi Qiao (喬任梁), and Angie Chiu’s (趙雅芝) son, Wesley Wong (黃愷傑).
The Transformers franchise has been highly successful in China. The third film’s earnings surpassed 1 billion RMB in China. Unlike Iron Man 3 which had a special Chinese version with extra footage starring Chinese actors, there will be only one version of Transformers 4 worldwide. In partnership with the government-backed China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises, Paramount Pictures will be filming a third of the movie in China. According to director Michael Bay, the movie will not film at main tourist attractions such as the Great Wall of China or Forbidden City, but feature other unique local attractions instead.
Earlier in May, Li Bingbing was selected to play a scientist in Transformers 4. Aside from the addition of Chinese cast members joining Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz in the movie, Autobots will finally reveal its true identity. Optimus Prime will have a new set of freshly-painted armor and Bumblebee will completely change its car design and take on a retro look.
Scouting Through Reality Show
Reality show, Transformers 4 Chinese Actor Talent Search, has officially begun since late April. Four actors, two professionals and two amateurs, will win speaking roles in the sequel. The winners will be selected from a jury which consists of Transformers 4 producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and casting director Denise Chamian, among others.
The opportunity to star in a major Hollywood production seems too attractive for rising actors to resist. Hong Kong actress Angie Chiu’s son, Wesley Wong, is a big fan of Michael Bay. Wesley will be auditioning for the role of a technical expert. Although the role does not call for major actions, Wesley is already exercising and keeping himself fit.
Filming in the United States has already started this month. After the audition and selection of sites, filming in China is scheduled to begin in October. Transformers 4 is scheduled to be released on June 27, 2014.
Source: Sina.com
This article is written by Karen for JayneStars.com.
The whole thing sounds gay, from the reality show to the new set of paint for Optimus prime -.- it’s like a reboot even though its only a few year olds >_> this title needs to be let go, same with Spider-Man -.- n maybe superman, n captain America -.- iron man n Thor are fine, but the rest gotta go -.-
I predict it will be a flop.
Impossible to be a flop. Doesn’t mean it will win praises. Transformers 1 was possibly Michael Bay’s best work, ever. It made sense and it was amazing. Other films were technically great but story wise dead. This one I am not banking on the acting. I mean come on, Mark Wahlberg? Wooden at best. So I hope at least Optimus may be nominated for best acting award.
@Funn – I second your proposal for Optimus to be nominated 🙂
The main characters will be the robots. Second in line will be the hollywood actors. The rest are just glorified ke-le-fes.
True.
its sad to see how many mainland chinese actors desperately wants a minor role in a hollywood movie for just 2 minutes screen time.
Maybe you don’t know, but a 2-minute scene in a holloywood movie is already enough to show off and be popular in asia because it means he/she successfully kicks other artists out of popularity.
I agree that many of the mainland artists think that being in a Hollywood production for just a few minutes is considered a big accomplishment. I think they should just try to make a name for themselves in the mainland market. I feel that is a bigger accomplishment than being in a Hollywood production for just a few minutes.
I feel if you are a nobody starting afresh, no big deal, like the young man in question. But for others, well let’s just see shall we.
No different from HK actors who flocked to Hollywood during the 90’s. Simon Yam and Terence Yin took villainous roles in an action movie starring Angelina Jolie, but it didn’t advance their Hollywood dreams. Chow Yunfat wasted his time there too.
Am I the only who has noted that recently a slew of Chinese actors flocking to join these mindless flicks just for the sake of “being” in a Hollywood blockbuster production?
I wonder why many asian artists try so hard to join hollywood productions. They should bear in mind that their roles are limited and mostly are ke-le-fes.
But that’s how the Asian stars get their big break into Hollywood and become international stars. Have to start small from somewhere.
Well, it’s sort of a ‘give and take’ relationship as well. Asian artists want to be in Hollywood productions, but also more and more, Hollywood production companies are collaborating with Mainland China because they are now beginning to realize just how big the Mainland box office market truly is. I can’t remember which film it was, but I remember reading a few weeks (months?) back how one of the big Hollywood productions actually made more box office revenue overseas (in China and other Asian countries) than it did in the U.S….with that kind of box office draw, of course Hollywood is going to want to dig more into that market. So basically, we’re definitely going to see more of these types of “Sino-American” productions in the future…
llwy12,
I believe “Life of Pi” may have earned stronger box office in mainland China than USA. Ang Lee was a draw, but the novel had a lot of fans in China.
The Sino-American productions make a lot of sense for the Hollywood studios. It reduces the investment cost of the film by partnering with a Chinese company, while increasing the potential box office draw of the films in China. These partnerships will continue until such films don’t perform well in China, when China is able to produce top-notch big-budget movies with their local actors catering to mainland taste.
Agree with both of you. It’s a win-win situation. The chinese government allows american movies to be shown in china although it is restricted in some aspects, for it forces the chinese producers to make better movies. Otherwise, it becomes like TVB where it monopolizes everything.
If it was not because of financially backed by Chinese gov’t, these chinese actors/actress may not have an opportunity to be in the movie.
Also, Michael Bay is a very tough director to work with. Don’t know who is worse between Bay and James Cameron
The last Transformers movie was a flop and without Shia this time I do wonder how it’ll play out.
Btw there was an article saying Fan Bing Bing in Iron man 3 but when I watched the film I didn’t see her at all…I guess being in just a Hollywood film
Briefly can mean well but it all depends if you’re suitable for it
You didn’t read the article carefully, it says Iron Man 3 has two different versions, one was for everyone and the other was for China. Only the China one has Fan Bing Bing in the beginning of the movie.
Is that so? I just thought maybe it would of been included in the U.S. version as well guess it wasn’t that important.
I don’t see how she fits into Iron Man 3 so I guess her role is not important.
@Raymond – oh… I wasn’t aware of the different version. Thanks for the info.
I wonder why they do that, poor Fan Bing Bing is a real ‘ke-le-feh’ then. At least Michelle Yeoh was one of the supporting actress with more parts/scenes in James Bond.
Lyle, I don’t think the last Transformers was a flop. If it was there wouldn’t be part 4. It made money. It may be a flop with critics (I mean the word Michael Bay and critically acclaimed do not mix) and fans but it made money. It wasn’t a flop in box office terms.
It was a flop in terms of plot and writing, the new girl couldn’t act either. Sure it made a lot of money and it probably doesn’t matter to the director but I always think critical reviews are far more important. Making so much money off such a bad movie should be an embarrassment.
I didn’t really finish watching T3 – somehow without Megan Fox, it wasn’t that interesting….
Megan isn’t known to be a strong actress but I did prefer seeing her than that other girl they had. The plot in the third one made no sense at all, worst of the trilogy in my opinion.
Wesley Wong looks a lot like his mom which is good since his mom is the good looking one between his parents.
That was what I was thinking too. I think this is her youngest son which is the one that she had with Melvin.
” I think this is her youngest son which is the one that she had with Melvin.”
She has other children with another man? I didn’t know that. Has she married before Melvin?
@Kidd: Yes, Angie was married before (back in the 1970s/early 80s, to an engineer whose surname was also Wong) — her first 2 sons were from her previous marriage. Wesley is the only son she had with Melvin.
llwy12,
Thanks for the trivia! I had forgotten that Angie had a previous marriage before Melvin.
@ Kidd,
To add to llwy12’s info, Angie married her first husband in 1975 when she was only 20/21. I think that marriage lasted about 5 years. They divorced in 1980 I think. She met Melvin in the series The Legend of Lady Wonder in 1981 and they have been together ever since.
Melvin was good looking 20 years ago and very cute as a kid.
Wesley is Melvin & Angie’s son. Why does the reporter keeps on saying “Angie Chiu’s son”, without ever mentioning Melvin at all???
Maybe they don’t know Melvin’s name???!!!!
With the aforementioned backdrop, perhaps the media was playing safe in case they got confused as to who Wesley’s father was.
Hey, the Jews and the Malays know what they are doing when they count bloodlines matrilineally because you can always be sure who the mother is.
I don’t know who they are but the son sure looks cute. 🙂
angie’s son looks like her.. but somehow he is not good looking enough
Hi there, I’m Nonie Han from Indonesia. Just wanna sharing about this topic. We have 1 actor who acted at fast and furious 6 name Joe Taslim. He roled as 1 of the bad guys who kicked the good guys asses. And as I know, Hollywood chosen him because he’s expert in fighting.
I think it’s ok to have a dream to play in Hollywood movies as long as it won’t change them and forgot who they’re really are and where they come from. Joe even said 1 line in Indonesian and I think that’s the only line that he has to said. The rest he only fought.
C’mon support our actors and actresses as long as they deserve it and the movies are the on with good quality.
Have a nice day guyz and God bless