Screen Power Publishing are the creators of ‘Screen-Power: The Jackie Chan Magazine’ and Jade Screen: The Ultimate Asian Film Magazine, both of which are very successful Asian Movie magazines based in the UK. Their magazines focus on the latest Asian movie news, star tributes, reviews, previews, interviews as well as movie events.
This is part 2 of our interview.
The Interview – Part 2
Screen Power Publishing creates both Screen Power and Jade Screen magazines as well as books on Asian cinema. How did the books come about?
I think it was just a natural progression from the magazines, and for us as a publishing company. With the books we get to give a lot more back to the readers in terms of pages and content that we sometimes cannot do in the magazines. My first book was in 2002 and it was a “Best of Screen Power” and featured the best interviews and articles from previous issues of the magazine and Jackie very kindly wrote the Foreword for the book too which was very cool of him. After that I did a couple of Jackie Chan books for Titan Books (UK) and then straight into “Jade Screen: The Essential Guide To Hong Kong Cinema” back in 2006.
Of course we are professional, but everything we do, from the publishing to trips and events is fan lead. I run the company and produce what I as a fan would like to see, read or do. If I wish that there was a book on a certain subject, chances are that many other people wish that to. We also welcome ideas from people, if enough people want a certain thing then will work hard to achieve it for them. I don’t think that there are many companies that can have that kind of relationship with their ‘customers’.
Are there plans for more books in the future?
Yes, we have a further two maybe three book projects slated for 2010. I can’t give any more details on what these are at the moment but when there is everyone can check out the information, cover artwork and release dates on our website. There is also another big book project on the horizon for 2010 but this is for another company but again, unfortunately my lips are sealed until everything is confirmed.
Your latest book release is called Jackie Chan: The Lo Wei Years. This period is very briefly covered even in Jackie Chan’s autobiography (I Am Jackie Chan), was it the lack of coverage in that book which got you interested in this period of Jackie’s life?
Yes, you are right this chapter in Jackie’s life isn’t really covered that much in the autobiography which was a shame as it is not only a really interesting part in his life but also a very important part too as he was in his mid-twenties and just on the brink of becoming Asia’s number one star. I particularly love the Lo Wei films, especially Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin and Fearless Hyena and I discussed the book idea with one of our US writers Lisa Clemens, Lisa is not only a great person, she’s also a great writer and she had been writing several articles about the Lo Wei films in Screen Power magazine for years and so we thought a book on that particular chapter of Jackie’s life would be interesting. So, Lisa took on the project as writer with me as editor.
Your company also released back in the summer another book called Enter the Fat Dragon: The Life & Films of Sammo Hung. Why did you decide to release that? I assume there are an army of Sammo Hung fans who regularly read Jade Screen magazine?
I have always loved Sammo Hung’s films going right back to when I was a kid. Movies like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Prodigal Son are just incredible. I guess once we got a bit more established with things I found it bizarre that no one else had ever released a book on Sammo and his life… There were several books on Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and even some on Jet Li and John Woo and the different genres of Asian films but never any on Sammo Hung. I was lucky in that I had met and interviewed Sammo a few times previously in Hong Kong, Thailand and Ireland so I already knew that I had some good material to put in our book and then as the project grew I also brought in some of the talented works from our team of writers, namely Mike Fury in the UK and Lisa Clemens, Albert Valentin and David Tadman in the States. The book was released back in the summer and it was a wonderful moment for me on a personal and professional level and very successful.
Which Asian stars or films personally influenced you in the creation of the magazines and what you do today?
The biggest influence for why I founded Screen Power magazine and I guess also why I set up Screen Power Publishing and do everything we do today is Jackie Chan. As for Jade Screen, the biggest influences for that side of things is Sammo Hung, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and all those amazing Shaw Brothers films.
PART 3 – Tomorrow
