Skyfire
Directed bySimon West
Written byWei Bu
Sidney King
Produced byChris Bremble
Jennifer Dong
John Hughes
Jazz Yanzhi Jiang
Charles Loi
Jib Polhemus
Aaron Shershow
Nancy Wu
StarringWang Xueqi
Hannah Quinlivan
Shawn Dou
Jason Isaacs
CinematographyAlan Caudillo
Music byPinar Toprak
Release date
  • December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12)
Running time
97 minutes[1]
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin
Box office$24.8 million[2][3]

Skyfire (Chinese: 天·火; pinyin: Tiānhuǒ) is a 2019 Chinese disaster action film about a volcanic eruption at a resort.[4] It is directed by Simon West, written by Wei Bu and Sidney King, and stars Wang Xueqi, Hannah Quinlivan, Shawn Dou, and Jason Isaacs.[5][4]

Plot

Young Meng Li loses her mother when a volcano erupts suddenly on the Southeast Asian island of Ting-Hao. As an adult, Meng returns to the island to set up research equipment. Jack Harris has built a resort, claiming that he knows the volcano is not expected to erupt for 150 more years, and believing people like to live on the edge. Meng's father Wentao comes to the island to warn her she should leave because the volcano is about to erupt again. While she wants to stay, she and her father are soon tasked with rescuing a group of tourists observing the volcano from a platform inside the crater. Most of the tourists survive, but Meng and Wentao must save a village from the lava flow. The tourists still at the hotel end up having to leave in a hurry as flaming rocks rain down. Meng and Wentao and the rest of their group face numerous challenges getting to a control center where they can release water from a reservoir and divert the lava. Wentao then finds himself trapped on the wrong side of the lava flow and unable to escape when a helicopter arrives. Later, he joins the others on a ship, explaining that thanks to his daughter's research, he was able to hide in a hole.

Cast

Production

The film is China's first big-budget disaster film, and producer Jennifer Dong expressed hope that it would be a "breakout film" for the genre in China the way The Wandering Earth was for science fiction.[4] The costumes for the movie were designed by Vera Chow.[6] The helmet design for Hannah Quinlivan was provided by the Indian fashion studio The V Renaissance.[7]

Two versions of the movie were filmed, one in Chinese and one in English, but a member of the production team said that the acting was more natural in the Chinese version and thought that the English version would not be used.[4]

Release

Though originally scheduled to be released in July 2019,[4] it debuted in China on December 12, 2019, and ranked #1 at the box office on opening day.[8]

Future

Skyfire was intended to be the first film in a trilogy.[4]

References

  1. ^ Elley, Derek (22 December 2019). "Review: Skyfire (2019)". Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  2. ^ "Skyfire (2020)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  3. ^ "Tian Huo Wei Qing (2019)". The Numbers. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Davis, Rebecca (14 May 2019). "Cannes: 'Skyfire,' China's First Big-Budget Disaster Movie, Shopped by Meridian Ent. (EXCLUSIVE)". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
    Davis, Rebecca (14 May 2019). "Cannes: 'Skyfire,' China's First Big-Budget Disaster Movie, Shopped by Meridian Ent. (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  5. ^ Davis, Rebecca (2019-06-15). "Why Simon West Is Making Movies in China (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  6. ^ "Vera Chow Website".
  7. ^ "Movies worked on by The V Renaissance". The V Renaissance. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  8. ^ Xinhua (2019-12-13). "Disaster film 'Sky Fire' leads Chinese mainland box office". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-13.

External links

Films directed by Simon West
Categories