Donnie Yen To Not Fight Vincent Zhao In SPECIAL IDENTITY

Following the recent news on the production disruption at the set of Special Identity, the True Legend star Vincent Zhao (aka Chiu Mun Cheuk) held a press conference yesterday in Beijing to formally confirmed that he will no longer be a part of the Donnie Yen-produced/Clarence Fok-directed contemporary action film. 

In Zhao's statement, he cited that the production team had "breeched the contractual terms by unilaterally changing the contents of the script". He also insisted his departure is "not due to any wrongdoing on my part" and the claims of his alleged arrogant behavior towards Yen from the media reports is falsely untrue.

The production team on the other hand beg to differ, maintaining that they had no choice but to drop Zhao because of his excessive demands and exhibiting poor attitude while shooting the film.  Consequently, Andy On (The Viral Factor, The Lost Bladesman) has been cast to replace Zhao's role.

On trying to resolve the situation and Zhao's eventual departure, Donnie Yen comments:

"I went with his agent to persuade him (Chiu) when I heard about the matter (Chiu's displeasure over the script changes), but unfortunately, it failed. I feel that there were some areas which Chiu did not handle well.

"Making a film is a team effort. Even though I admire him a lot, I cannot go against this principle. In the end, I have to respect the decision of the production team and the investors," said Yen of Chiu's exit from the project.

"Script changes occur very often. If the changes are reasonable, it can improve the whole film. It isn't something that can't be talked over."

There are two side of the story but either way, Zhao not being able to match-up against Yen, both highly capable action star in their own right, is a disappointing loss for us fans of the martial arts genre.