Cicakman’s Back
A scene from Cicakman.
Action-packed and with better special effects, local superhero Cicakman is set to take Malaysia by storm once again in Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam. SHARMILA BILLOT reports on its world premiere screening in Pusan recently.
Norman says it’s an honour for Cicakman 2 to be shown in Pusan.
OUR very own superhero movie, Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam, recently had its world premiere screening at the 13th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) in South Korea.
There were 80 movies slotted for the world premiere at the festival.
“It was really an honour for us to have it shown in Pusan and the response was very encouraging,” said producer and CEO of KRU Studios, Norman Abdul Halim.
“During the question-and-answer session after the premiere, a visibly-impressed Korean student even asked if that’s the quality of movies produced in Malaysia.
“Some film critics there were also happy with the movie as they felt it offered something different. Most superheroes are usually well-built; here we have Saiful Apek, who is both skinny and funny.
”The critics were also impressed with the quality of our special effects.
“It took director Yusry Abdul Halim and his team about seven months to produce the movie at a cost close to RM2.5 million.
”This time around, we were more adventurous with the movie. It’s more action-packed and we cut down on the comedy aspect after feedback from the first movie.
“It is still funny but we concentrated on the fight scenes and paid a lot of attention to details.
“Needless to say, we put a lot of emphasis on special effects.”
In Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam, the evil Professor Klon is back. This time, his aim is not only to overthrow the government and become the President of Metrofulus but also to control the world’s supply of fresh water through an evil plan which he calls “Black Water”.
Cicakman faces his old enemies Ginger Boys, who return in a more powerful and spiritual form, as Ginger Ghosts. He also has to deal with Professor Klon’s hired assassin Rrama, who derives pleasure in killing.
“Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam showcased at the PIFF what Malaysia’s movie industry has to offer in terms of storyline, computer-generated image elements and the production standard,” said Norman.
“It usually takes one successful movie to pave the way for Malaysian products to be exported and I hope Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam will help our film-makers to be recognised internationally.”
The movie will also be released simultaneously in Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.
“At the film festival, we were also in talks with distributors from Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines who showed keen interest in bringing the film to their countries,” added Norman.
Apart from the added action and excitement, the film will also see the first-time collaboration between Yusry and the renowned Indonesian music whiz, Melly Goeslow, for its soundtrack.
According to Edry Abdul Halim, who is the music director for the soundtrack, it is more upbeat in sound and tempo, influenced by rock and roll elements more suitable to the storyline.
Saiful reprises his role as Cicakman, with Aznil Nawawi as Profesor Klon.
Sharifah Amani plays the character of Iman while Fasha Sandha takes the role of Tania.
The first Cicakman collected RM6 million, the highest taking in the local box-office in 2006.
Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam will be released in 70 cinemas on Dec 11 by KRU Studios with the goal of selling a million tickets compared to 670,000 tickets for Cicakman.
New Straits Times