Magnet Has "Warlords"

A scene from Peter Ho-Sun Chan's "Warlords." Image courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, announced today that it has acquired North American rights to Peter Ho-Sun Chan's historical action epic, "Warlords." Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro star in the film, which was a huge hit in China, winning eight Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Director for Chan and Best Actor for Li.

As described by Magnet: "'Warlords' is set in the midst of war and political upheaval during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s. Jet Li stars as General Pang, who after a surviving a massacre of his fellow soldiers by playing dead, joins a band of bandits led by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). After fighting back attackers from an helpless village, the three men take an oath to become "blood brothers," pledging loyalty to one another until death, but things quickly turn sour and the three men become embroiled in a web of political deceit, and a love triangle between Pang, Er Hu and a beautiful courtesan (Wu Jing-Lei)."

"I was very impressed by 'Warlords,'" said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles in a statement. "It's very well made and has a Hong Kong action film dream cast. We're excited to be bringing it to North American audiences."

The deal was negotiated by Magnolia's Senior Vice President Tom Quinn and Head of Business Affairs Chris Matson, with Andre Morgan and Ricky Tse from Media Asia. Magnolia plans to release the film late this summer.