Pre-Production | Production | Pre-Release Publicity This page are the newspaper clippings which cover the pre-production stage of the movie, Anna and the King. The dates range from October to December 1998.
'Anna and the King' to begin shooting on location on Sunday.
The Star
Monday, March 1, 1999
At the break of dawn, Penang's heritage enclave in Armenian Street is transformed into a thriving marketplace in 19th century Bangkok as filming of "Anna and the King" begins on Sunday.
The laid-back street that is home to barber shops, hair salons and old trades is now a congested marketplace outside the Palace of King Mongkut (acted by Chow Yun-Fat) where a facade of its gigantic gate has been erected near the Yap Temple.
Film production crew at the site on Saturday toiled through the night laying out marketwares like bird-cages, clogs and baskets while vegetables were covered with sheets and watered to retain their freshness.
Building facades that are conspicuously Malaysian were also cleverly camouflaged or concealed with bamboo blinds and covers.
Some walls were plastered with sepia-coloured advertisements from olden Bangkok for added authenticity.
While the crew rushed to meet their deadline, curious onlookers, foreign tourists and even amateur photographers and their "model" thronged the site for pictures before it was closed to public towards evening.
Location manager Robin Hollister said although the eventual airtime for the 11-day shoot in Penang would only last several minutes, the scene was important to set the mood for the entire film.
"This is the opening scene where Anna Leonowens (played by Jodie Foster) first arrived at the Bangkok harbour and it must capture her confusion upon entering a foreign land that is crowded with people and animals," he said.
Animal consultant Rona Brown said about 12 elephants, two oxen, six goats and 12 chickens would be transported from Coronation Camp to Cheah Kongsi early this morning.
"We are having a briefing on tonight (Saturday) and also tomorrow morning (Sunday) to decide where the animals would enter the scene," she said.
Some of the 1,300 extras involved in the opening scene were scheduled to gather at the Esplanade at 5.30am Sunday for make-up preparations and briefing before moving to Armenian Street for the filming.
The 20th Century Fox production, costing an estimated US$60mil (RM228mil), is based on English governess Anna Leonowen's book about her five-year service in the court of King Rama IV, better known as King Mongkut.
A taste of Hollywood in Penang
The Star, 1st March 1999
Penangites had a real taste of Hollywood when filming of Anna and the King began yesterday with movie superstars Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat appearing at the location site at Armenian Street. Foster, playing the part of English widow and governess Anna Leonowens, arrived at 9am in a Mercedes Benz with child actor Tom Felton who plays the part of Anna's son, Louis. The Academy Award winning actress, who looked the part in a black bonnet and shawl, white bouse, light green coat and skirt, was a prominent contrast againt a sea of "exotic" looking people, who were local extras. The setting was a bustling bazaar outside King Mongkut's palace set in 19th century Siam. Extras, looking like those of an earlier era with their costumes, were milling around the bazaar as Thai marketware-mongers, pony-tailed Chinese, Indian merchants, palace guards and noblemen. Filming will continue at Port Swettenham today where a full-sized junk have been remodelled for the scene of Anna's arrival at Bangkok harbour. Filming in Penang that mainly feature the arrival of Anna and her journey to the palace, ends on March 10. The rest will be filmed in Langkawi and Ipoh. This 20th Century fox production is based on Anna's book about her five years service as tutor the King's many children and wives.
ANNA AND THE KING WAKES UP IPOH
Travelasia, Issue of March 5, 1999
If Thailand is going ga-ga over Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach, then Malaysia is doing the same but over American actress Jodie Foster and Hong Kong’s Chow Yuen Fatt in 20th Century Fox’s remake of Anna and the King.
The filming was moved to Malaysia from Thailand after the Thai Film Board rejected the script. 20th Century Fox has picked the tranquil, sleepy city of Ipoh in Perak as location – a boon for this ex-tin mine city which has not seen much action since the tin supply ran out.
Hotels are also going overboard to vie for a piece of the action.
The lucky ones are Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort near Batu Gajah, which has been selected as one of the venues for the shooting, and Hillcity Hotel and Condo as the film’s crew base hotel.
The Casuarina Parkroyal and Heritage too will get an allotment of film executives.
With filming to start this month, these hotels are leaving no stone unturned to please the stars and the crew.
They have even modified the menu to include more Western dishes and concocted special cocktails, aptly named "Anna" and "King", to mark the once-in-a-lifetime occasion.
Whatever the outcome of this frenzy, the making of this movie will be no doubt be a great opportunity for Malaysia to promote itself as a venue for filming.
We wonder whether sleepy hollow Ipoh will ever be the same again ...
That's Hollywood!
By Jonathan Kwok, The Star, March 23, 1999.
Those who think Anna And The King will be just a remake of the famous 1956 musical The King And I are in for a surprise.
The latest film version of the well-loved story of Siam's King Mongkut and his English tutor Anna Leonowens promises to be a "grand romantic epic", far surpassing its predecessors in scope and dimension.
While producer Lawrence Bender (of Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting fame) would not reveal much about the actual storyline, he gave hints of "a very real romance" between King Mongkut (Chow Yun-Fat) and teacher Anna Leonowens (Jodie Foster).
The movie, he said, would feature an exciting East meets West cultural clash from the moment she sets foot in Siam to her arrival with her son Louis at King Mongkut's court in 1862.
It is in the heat of personality clashes and cultural conflicts that a romance between the king and teacher is forged.
"Every bit of footage will be filmed here in Malaysia and the movie will be a visual feast with scenes of the beautiful countryside, the boats, the people and the animals," Bender said of the RM228mil 20th Century Fox production during a recent interview.
It has been reported that Foster will receive about US$15mil (RM57mil) for her role, making her one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses.
A heart-rending sub-plot is the sad story of Princess Tuptim (played by Chinese actress Bai Ling), who is cruelly separated from her true love to be presented as a gift to King Mongkut.
One of the scenes, filmed in Penang's Armenian Street, shows Tuptim weeping silently as she is carried on a palanquin to the king's palace. Tuptim's star-crossed lover runs after her through the market square, only to be denied entry into the palace by the royal sentries.
The movie makes no apology for highlighting the reality of slavery and the repression of women during that era.
In fact, the Thai Film Board refused to give the green light for the movie to be filmed in Thailand as it was deemed an insult to the monarchy. A report by Associated Press said the board was upset that King Mongkut is depicted as a "brutal buffoon" and a "comedian" in the movie.
The board's demands that changes be made to the script if 20th Century Fox wanted to film on location were ignored, and Malaysia became the venue.
(Incidentally, a Thai can be jailed up to 15 years for insulting the monarchy.)
Adding colour to the movie is the extensive use of animals - elephants, goats, cows, horses, chickens, snakes and crocodiles - in various scenes. It's quite a jungle out there!
A sea of exotic "Siamese" faces comprising thousands of local extras add authenticity to the 19th century set.
Despite showbiz's inherent glamour, theirs is no easy task. They work 14-hour days, assembling at 5.30am and toiling through the afternoon heat, often clad in nothing more than loincloths, sandals and sarongs.
But no one is really complaining. The chance of a lifetime to star in a Hollywood production, coupled with a daily wage of between RM100 and RM250, makes it all worthwhile.
It is learnt that the cast of extras included the son of a Member of Parliament, while the son of a state exco member was hired as a location assistant.
Filming in Penang from Feb 28 till March 12 was done in several locations - the market scene and palace entrance in Armenian Street; the Siamese port scene at Swettenham Pier; the Syed Alatas mansion became Anna's rented house; the Khoo Kongsi was transformed into a marketplace, while a court scene was played out at the municipal council building.
Shooting has moved on to Perak for about three weeks before going on to Pulau Langkawi for two weeks and then back to Perak, till it wraps up sometime in May.
A grand mock-up palace has been built in Ipoh for a realistic portrayal of King Mongkut's royal courts - definitely Hollywood magic at its best.
So, what will the final product be like? We'll know when the movie is released during the Christmas season. But for now, Anna And The King remains the talk of the town.
The King and I
Film retains major historical inaccuracies Shooting finally starts in Malaysia
March 24, 1999
Bangkok PostTwentieth Century Fox announced yesterday it has begun filming what appears to be the worst nightmare of those who backed the remake of The King and I.
A press release from the Beverly Hills headquarters said the film has retained or restored the major historical inaccuracies in the story of Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut.
Lengthy negotiations over the script were held in Bangkok last year, when the film company sought permission to shoot the high-budget movie in Thailand.
At that time, spokesmen for the Rupert Murdoch-owned company and Thai supporters said Twentieth Century had agreed to remove the known inaccuracies from the tale of Leonowens. The Film Board eventually decided the final script was still inaccurate and denied filming permission because of the threat the movie will insult the monarchy.
The announcement that filming had begun in Malaysia threw those promises by the film company into question. It described Anna as the "true-life adventures of British governess Anna Leonowens, who is hired by the King of Siam to educate his 58 children".
In fact, as most people in Thailand now know, Leonowens' story is largely a fraud, including both her own story and her life at the palace. She was hired as a governess and never taught the royal children.
"Soon after her arrival in this exotic, unfamiliar (Siam), Anna finds herself engaged in a battle of wits with the strong-willed ruler", the release stated. "The story is based on historical information."
Script writers admitted last year that Leonowens never met King Mongkut, known to history as Rama IV. Historians have established that the king, one of the country's most progressive and admired monarchs, had no reason to engage in a battle of wits with the lightly-armed Anna.
Twentieth Century spokesmen said the movie will be released in December, probably under the title Anna. American actress Jodie Foster plays Leonowens and Chow Yun-Fat plays King Mongkut. Chinese actress Bai Ling acts as the Burmese slave girl Tuptim, the release said.
Filming is taking place in Malaysia's Chinese-style city of Ipoh, which will be Bangkok in the film, and on Langkawi Island, south of Phuket.
Darlings on the set
By Choong Kwee Kim, The Star, March 23, 1999.
HOLLYWOOD came to Penang to shoot Anna And The King but it was Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat who got Penangites all abuzz.
Chow,as well as Hong Kong actor Kenneth Tsang, who plays a judge; and Chinese actress Bai Ling, who plays Princess Tuptim, one of the king's concubines, were the centre of attraction wherever they went.
The hoi polloi were, however, far less enthusiastic about Jodie Foster, one of Hollywood's finest actresses, who plays the coveted role of Anna.
"Jodie who?" asked some Chinese newspaper photographers and the majority of extras who sweated it out during filming with the leading lady with nary an idea of who she was. Some even thought her name was "Julie" or "Judy". Even more "anonymous" among the crowd was director Andy Tennant whose credits include Ever After, Fools Rush In and The Wonder Years.
Needless to say, homegrown talents like Mano Maniam and Shantini Venugopal, who both play servants to Anna, also did not have to contend with swooning fans.
People here, both young and old, all seem to love Chow, who became a household name, thanks to popular Chinese serials and movies including The Bund, Man In The Net, A Better Tomorrow and God 0f Gamblers.
Word that he was in Penang drew affectionate responses like: "Fatt-chai (little Fatt) in town ah?"
When Chow showed up at Armenian Street on the first day of filming, fans went wild and tried to mob him.
There was one setback though to Chow's popularity, in the form of his Singaporean wife Jasmine Tan who guarded him ferociously like an over-zealous bodyguard.
But that did not deter a group of about 40 old friends who toiled for days as extras for the thrill of seeing the Chinese stars, and to make money, of course.
Among them was hawker Lim Ah Boh who grabbed this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see his Chinese movie idols in person.
"We were more interested to see Chow Yun-Fat and Bai Ling than the Western stars, whoever they are," said Lim, who sells Hokkien mee at a stall behind The Star's Penang office in Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling.
Another extra, Goh Chit Hooi, 56, gushed like a schoolgirl when talking about her hero Chow. "I grew up idolising a lot of Chinese film stars and I like Chow Yun-Fat because his acting is simply superb," said the housewife whose son, in his 40s, also played an extra.
Of all the stars, Bai Ling, who recently shaved bald for her role, was probably the most approachable to fans and the press.
The 27-year-old actress even went on an adventurous night out with several pressmen to eat bak kut teh, went hunting for a pirated VCD of her earlier movie Red Corner (co-starring Richard Gere) and visited the Kek Lok Si Temple in Air Itam.
Her warm personality won her many new fans, including a group of British tourists who met her at a beach hotel in Penang.
Tourist Heany Ronald, 59, was so charmed by Bai Ling's friendliness that he vowed not to miss her new movie. "I find her interesting and very approachable which is very good for her image," said the retired meat wholesaler who followed daily reports on the shooting of the movie in newspapers.
With the best of Hollywood and Hong Kong converging in one place, it is no wonder that both visitors and residents of Penang have been starstruck.
Paparazzi in a frenzy
By Jonathan Kwok, for The Star of March 23, 1999.
JODIE Foster and Chow Yun-Fat are in town for the filming of Anna And The King. Find out where they are staying and get pictures and interviews with them." The boss's instruction was clear enough, and exciting as it was, I had that sinking feeling we were in for a really hectic week.
The task of tracking down the stars seemed simple enough - after all, Penang is pretty small and we know it like the back of our hand. Surely, there aren't too many places for top movie stars to hide, right?
Wrong!
Six hours and dozens of phone calls later, no one in our "manhunt" team had the faintest clue as to where the stars were staying.
Hotel officials were either tight-lipped or insistent that the actors were not putting up at their premises. And the actors' unit publicist could not be reached. Our efforts to locate the actors were getting us nowhere.
But just as we were bracing ourselves to give an account to the editor, the phone rang. A fellow journalist told us excitedly that Jodie Foster had been spotted shopping at a pharmacy in Penang Plaza, a mere 10 minutes' drive from the office! If we hurried, we just might catch her!
A mad scramble ensued as photographers and journalists sprung into action. Come what may, we were not going to let Foster get away!
The two-time Academy Award-winning actress (for The Accused and The Silence Of The Lambs) was apparently doing some shopping when her driver noticed several reporters (from the Chinese press) lurking suspiciously close by. He sounded the alarm and Foster, casually dressed in a cotton shirt, shorts and sandals, immediately made a dash for her car.
Despite our near-suicidal rush, we were just in time to see Foster hurriedly get into a metallic grey Mercedes Benz which sped off. No waves, no smiles, no comments, just a stern warning from her bodyguard to stop taking pictures even as the shutterbugs clicked away furiously.
She was gone in the blink of an eye, but we got her pictures! Not a bad start. It certainly felt good to be paparazzi.
As luck would have it, another reporter from a Chinese daily happened to be "hanging around" outside the adjacent Sheraton Hotel, when he caught a glimpse of Chow Yun-Fat walking out, accompanied by several bodyguards, and getting into a white Mercedes Benz.
Overcome by excitement and nervousness, this reporter only managed a few blur shots as his hands were shaking uncontrollably.
The two weeks that Hollywood was in Penang (Feb 28 to March 12) saw our lives take a bizarre turn as we immersed ourselves in our new-found roles as celebrity-stalking paparazzi.
With the exception of Chinese actress Bai Ling, the Hollywood stars, especially Foster and Chow, remained aloof and elusive.
Despite several celebrity sightings at the Mutiara Beach Resort, Rasa Sayang Resort and the Sheraton, no one could confirm where the stars were staying.
Badgered by the press for interviews with the stars, their unit publicist Claire Raskin politely explained that they needed the privacy to rehearse their roles: Chow as King Mongkut or Rama IV and Foster as English governess Anna Leonowens.
"We'll have a press conference with the actors once the shooting is under way," Raskin assured us, a promise that has yet to be fulfilled. In the meantime, we were to leave the celebrities alone - something we jolly well could not do as die-hard journalists.
After all, it is not every day that a RM228mil 20th Century Fox production featuring top Hollywood and Hong Kong stars gets filmed right in our backyard. Adding to the urgency was the very real possibility of getting "scooped" by rival papers. The hunt had to go on.
On one occasion, we had to take drastic measures when security was particularly tight at Swettenham Pier - which was converted into a Siamese port to film the arrival of Anna and her son Louis in Siam.
Unable to get past the over-zealous police and Federal Reserve Unit officers, we decided to gang up with several Chinese press counterparts and hire a motorboat to get a "sneak preview" from the sea.
In the blistering noonday heat, we made our way out to sea in a small motorised fishing boat.
The sight that greeted us was incredible: The pier had been magically transformed into a realistic-looking Siamese port, complete with wooden crates with Siamese writings, exotic- looking labourers and elephants busy unloading vegetables from barges. A majestic 30m-long Siamese junk was docked there, while an imposing fort (made of plywood and plaster) formed an impressive backdrop.
Knowing that we would be chased off if we were spotted, we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and headed for a nearby row of floating wooden fishing huts, specially-constructed as props.
We stealthily pulled up behind the huts, fastened the boat and sneaked into the huts - aiming our long lenses like concealed snipers through the attap walls and windows.
We had a clear view from our hideout. Now all we had to do was wait for the action to begin. And begin it did! Even as we peered through our lenses, we saw publicist Raskin stomp into a speedboat with four security officers and head straight for our direction.
From then on, everything happened at the speed of lightning. Before we could even pack our equipment and make a run for it, the speedboat had pulled up alongside our craft.
The only thing to do was to look innocent (rather difficult with cameras and long lenses slung over our shoulders).
I pulled my cap low and turned away, hoping Raskin would not recognise me, but she did. "So, Jonathan, it's you! Going undercover, huh?" she said, not the least bit amused.
The rest were asked to identify themselves and their newspaper organisations before being told to leave the area. Within moments, Raskin had called up our editors and politely but firmly requested that we stop our paparazzi antics as we were a "great distraction" to the actors.
Undaunted, our editor simply asked us to look for new avenues.
This led to us using a company director's private office on the 12th floor of a nearby building for a bird's-eye view of the pier. We managed to follow the action from afar using binoculars and telephoto lenses.
Other paparazzi tactics included hanging around dressed shabbily (and inconspicuously) outside the film sets, and mingling with curious onlookers with our cameras concealed.
My colleagues Choong Kwee Kim and H.N. Leong were among a group of paparazzi accidentally locked up in a pre-war house in Armenian Street during one of their stake-outs.
Apparently, the house owner had forgotten about the group hiding upstairs and had gone out for some errands, leaving them stranded for at least three hours!
Adding to the madness was the difficulty in identifying the real stars, as each of the actors, from Chow and Foster to young Tom Felton, had their own doubles who looked like carbon copies from afar. Their job was to be red herrings to throw the pesky press off the scent.
Looking back, it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if only the stars had granted us a short interview and photo session so that we need not play this cat-and-mouse game.
But I guess they had a job to do and the last thing they needed was more publicity. In the meantime, we, the press, also have our jobs to do ... at whatever the cost.
Behind every filming-in-progress story for Anna And The King, is a story of a reporter and photographer who braved the odds and took the risk of getting caught, even humiliated.
Jodie Foster Suffers Ankle Injury
April 8, 1999
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--Jodie Foster suffered a minor ankle injury during a break from work on the film "Anna and the King." Foster was treated at a hospital Wednesday. The injury was not expected to set back work on the $60 million project being filmed on the popular Malaysian resort island. Foster is co-starring in the 20th Century Fox remake of "The King and I" along with Hong Kong action hero Chow Yun Fat. The film is about a 19th century governess hired by King Mongkut of Siam, now Thailand, to teach his children English. Thailand has traditionally objected to the story as historically incorrect, and barred Hollywood from shooting the film in Thailand.
CHOW YUN-FAT'S COSTUME EXPOSED
Oriental Daily of April 4th, 1999 (abridged).
So far, during filming of ANNA AND THE KING, Chow Yun-Fat has been able to keep his Thai king look under wraps. However, yesterday his Thai king costume was finally caught on film by photographers as he went out to do a location shoot. In his Thai king costume we can safely say that he looks truly majestic.
Filming took place yesterday on a beach. To keep Chow's look under wraps, the studio had picked a secluded beach to film at. The cast and crew worked quickly but some outsiders and local residents were around to catch a peek.
In the scene, Thai King Chow, Queen Bai Ling, Tutor Jodie Foster, and about thirty small princes are going camping by the sea. The shoot went smoothly. Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat were often seen talking and joking together. To keep his Thai costume under wraps as much as possible, Chow often went into a makeup truck. He also often wore a red robe to hide the costume in. Still the look was exposed. (SANNEY: Seems to me he's still hiding it under the red robe.)
From: Chow Yun-Fat: God of Actors
Anna Made Extras Wait
Mrshowbiz.com, May 5, 1999
Anna and the King, starring Jodie Foster, has run into another snafu.
The BBC reports that a group of 60 extras have complained that they were kept waiting by the 20th Century Fox crew for three days. They are also seeking compensation for travel and accommodation expenses.
"To aggravate the matter, [a Fox] official chased us away when we sought an explanation from him," says a representative of the group.
The extras pleaded their case to both Malaysian police and the country's prime minister, Mathahir Mohamad, the BBC says.
This incident is just one in a string of problems faced by the $60 million Anna, which had to set up production in Malaysia when the Thailand government refused to approve the movie's script. Even though Fox did a rewrite, officials say that the studio's story about English tutor Anna Leonowens (Foster) and King Mongkut of Siam (Chow Yun-Fat) contains historical inaccuracies.
A Malaysian newspaper has reported that production on Anna is expected to continue through June.
ROYALLY SPEAKING
Mrshowbiz.com July 2nd 1999:
ROYALLY SPEAKING: 20th Century Fox's Anna and the King (AKA, Anna), a non-singing version of the true-life story that inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, has wrapped after roughly 15 weeks of shooting in Langkwai, Malaysia, and at England's Pinewood Studios. I hear it ended up costing a lot more than it was supposed to. Initially budgeted around $50 million or $60 million, the period drama has come in at roughly double that. No need to get into a blame game over this — there's no telling whose agendas you're serving when you pass this stuff along — but I'm hearing that the director, Andy Tennant, had more than a little to do with the budget bloat.
Anna is Tennant's fourth film. It Takes Two ('95), Fools Rush In ('97), and Ever After ('98) came before it. Tennant was on-budget with Fools Rush In, according to co-producer Anna Maria Davis, but sources say he went over with Ever After, the fanciful Cinderella redo that starred Drew Barrymore. "That's where the pattern started," one source confides. Of course any big American movie that shoots overseas always runs into budgetary ballooning. And Anna had its share of difficulties (political and otherwise) when it filmed in Malaysia.
Jodie Foster stars as English governess Anna Leonowens, whose memoirs were the basis of all the adaptations. She took a post from the King of Siam (Chow Yun-Fat) in the 1870s to care for his many children. But soon after taking up residence in the palace Anna found herself in a battle of nerves with the iron-willed ruler. This will be the third time that this story has been brought to the screen. In 1946 there was Anna and the King of Siam with Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne. In 1956 came the musical version, also produced by Fox, with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr.
Jinx plagues set of Foster's royal epic
By Liz Hodgson, for the South China Morning Post, August 13th 1999
There was so much bad luck on the Malaysian film set of Anna, starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat, that Hollywood film industry executives joked it should be renamed The Jinx and I.
People suffered broken bones, animals fell off cliffs and one man was nearly killed by a snake during the remake of the 1956 musical, The King and I.
The producers became so desperate to stop the mishaps they hired two local priests to rid the set of evil spirits.
"There were way too many mishaps to be labelled a fluke," a movie executive said.
Trouble started early for the film, in which Foster plays British teacher Anna Leonowens and Chow the King of Siam. It also stars Red Corner actress Bai Ling.
Twentieth Century Fox was forced to switch filming to Malaysia after the Thai Government refused to play host.
A few days into filming Foster, 36, fell and bruised her ribs and a week later twisted her ankle.
A young boy on the set was almost crushed by an elephant.
Director Andy Tennant broke his hand when a metal clamp fell on it and Bai Ling broke her nose during a boat ride.
A worker plunged off a hotel balcony, splitting his head, and an assistant was nearly strangled to death by a boa constrictor.
After the producers called in a priest to perform a cleansing ritual, two horses fell off a cliff.
A second priest arrived later to perform the same blessing. Unfortunately, while one blessing is a charm, two are considered bad luck - and a third horse fell off the cliff.
Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright (c) 1999. All rights reserved.
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