Director Zhang Yimou (left) and producer Zhang Weiping [File Photo: baidu.com]

Film producer Zhang Weiping appeared yesterday to confirm the widely circulated rumor that his partnership with internationally acclaimed movie director Zhang Yimou was on the verge of ending.

"He (Zhang Yimou) didn't answer my calls, didn't reply to my short messages and I have no idea where he is now," Zhang Weiping said during an exclusive interview with Sina.com.cn. There seemed little doubt that the decade-long filmmaking partnership between them had developed serious cracks.

Having collaborated with Zhang Yimou for almost 16 years since their first parody movie "Keep Cool", Zhang Weiping was considered the major sponsor and close partner of the preeminent filmmaker, whose ensuing dazzling, yet often controversial visual feasts such as "Hero" and "Curse of the Golden Flower", wowed at the box office but left critics cold.

Dubbed as "duo Zhang" inside entertainment circles, the two film industry gurus were rumored to have split after their latest war epic "The Flowers of War", starring Christian Bale and the starlet "Mou's girl", Ni Ni. The film's perceived double failure of neither taking 1-billion-yuan (US$157 million) at the box office nor winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's ceremony, signaled that the melancholic movie commemorating the "Nanking Massacre" during World War II was a watershed moment in the previously golden partnership between the two Zhangs.

"I haven't seen him since the premiere of 'The Flowers of War'", Zhang Weiping said. He then recalled that he phoned Zhang Yimou at a film-review party in last September and was informed, albeit not by Zhang, that his loyal movie director might leave his filmmaking studio, New Picture Co. Ltd.

"[After hearing the news] I sent him a message in front of my buddies," Zhang Weiping recounted. "And Yimou soon replied with a phone call." According to Zhang Weiping, Zhang Yimou categorically denied the news and comforted Zhang Weiping with the news that it was just another rumor of their impending breakup, the type of rumor which been circulating since their early days of filmmaking.

They have not spoken to each other since. "I sent him a message, saying that I would like to see him whenever and wherever he is available," Zhang Weiping recalled. But the producer has so far received no reply to his calls and messages.

"An old Chinese saying goes: 'true hearts reveal themselves in time', yet now I cannot even find the body [where the heart beats]," Zhang Weiping said sarcastically.

According to the rumor mill, Zhang Yimou now intends to leave New Picture Co. Ltd to join the film studio owned by Dalian Wanda Group. It is clear that his old partner is irked by his refusal to come clean with his reasons.

"If I dissatisfy you, you should at least give me a reason why," Zhang Weiping said.

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