UK: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu high kick their way to the premiere of Kung Fu Panda in London

Record ID: 708858

  • Title: UK: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu high kick their way to the premiere of Kung Fu Panda in London
  • Date: 2nd July 2008
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 26, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE OF KUNG FU PANDA PREMIERE IN LEICESTER SQUARE / CLOSE OF MOVIE POSTER CLOSE OF PANDA STATUE FANS WAITING FOR CAST TO ARRIVE
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2008 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA1BNWH59X5E17O1C2EUZ2YJC8Y
  • Story Text: Jack Black arrived to the premiere of Kung Fu Panda in London in style on Thursday (June 26), on a litter carried by four men. Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu also stunned the hundreds of excited fans crammed into central London with their personal interpretations of origami.
    "Kung Fu Panda" is an unconventional screen idol built more for laughs than for beating up the bad guys.
    Po (voiced by Black) is fat, lazy and serves noodles at his dad's cafe.
    Yet he dreams of being like the kung fu fighters taught by Master Shifu (Hoffman).
    When Po is mistaken for a mighty warrior who will save the valley in which he and all his animal friends live, he must learn to be the tough-minded panda of his wild imagination.
    But Po is far better at eating than fighting -- unless he has food for motivation. Then, he is quite tough.
    The film's distributor Paramount Pictures has benefited from the cartoon, which has made 156 million USD after three weekends.
    The ever-energetic Black said there was a simple formula to the film's success.
    "Well because it's got a good mix. It's got the kung fu action and you got the funniness and you also got the spiritual nuggets sprinkled in there."
    When asked whether Jolie forgave him after inadvertedly blurting out in Cannes that she was pregnant with twins, he added: "I think so. I haven't heard from here. But then again I didn't hear from her before so everything is the same as it usually was."
    Lucy Liu wore a pink strapless dress with a tulip skirt. The New York City-born actress with Chinese ancestry has made her mark in Hollywood playing a variety of roles, not always in tune with her Asian roots, as seen by her most recent parts in "Cashmere Mafia" and currently "Dirty Sexy Money".
    Liu said she often fights against getting typecast as an Asian woman but that is part of the job: "I don't know I think there is always something you have to fight against and work towards. I tend to work towards things and you have choices you can make. The more variety you have, the more variety for me is more interesting so I try to change it as much as possible."
    Dustin Hoffman, 70, was in a jovial mood as he jokingly told Reuters Television about the moment Angelina Jolie chose Brad Pitt over him, in reference to his comments made at last month's Cannes Film Festival.
    "She chose me over Brad and I looked over at Brad and he started crying and I said it's not worth it Angelina so I said take him, take him.
    Have you ever seen Brad Pitt cry? Very sad. My wife would have kung fu-ed me if I would have went ahead," said Hoffman.
    Jolie, heavily-pregnant with twin girls by Brad Pitt, is awaiting the due date in late August, as confirmed by Black during Cannes. One of the key messages of the film is breaking down stereotypes of who can and cannot be heroes. Jolie said because of her Hollywood background, she constantly had to fight to be heard on Washington's Capitol Hill.
    "I think I had that more in the side of my life that I'm working on now, not as much the humanitarian side of it but getting into politics or trying to push a bill through Congress or something like that. I kind of feel a lot still like the punk kid that didn't go to college, and an actor. So I certainly had a lot of people, when I first started going to Washington or lobbying for things make me feel like 'what do you think you are doing?' until I got confident that I'm a citizen and a thinking person and why can't I also try to be this as well because this means something to me. But I was shy for a while until I found I had the confidence to do that," said Jolie.
    The film, which sees Po study kung fu alongside other animal characters to save his village, is released on July 4.
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