Fancy of wanting to be a movie star? In the gullible society of Malaysia, an email believed to be making rounds trying to get gullible wannabe movie stars to act alongside with Jackie Chan. The email said that it was part of JCE (Jackie Chan Entertainment) which is scouting for potential people from the street to star in movies. Send in the money and you get a chance to be auditioned.
Read all about it here:
CALLING all actors from Singapore and Malaysia, auditions are now open for the Jackie Chan movie, Baby Plan 2.
Just pay a RM506.58 ($220) fee to register for the audition in Malaysia. So went a recent e-mail, which appeared to have been sent by Jackie Chan’s production company, JCE Movies. But the open call has since been exposed as a scam.
JCE Movies spokesman Su Zhi Hong said: ‘The company does not have plans to film Baby Plan 2, not to mention audition actors. ‘The e-mail is most likely a scam. The company has already informed the authorities of the matter.’
The e-mail said actors hired for the sequel to this year’s box-office hit, Baby Plan (which was released in Singapore as Rob-B-Hood, pictured above), will be paid RM10,000 and upwards.
The lead actor will be paid RM200,000 and the child actor who plays Matthew No 2 will get RM50,000.
The e-mail also said that those who audition will get to dine with Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Andy Lau and other stars. Participants will get a six-star hotel stay, with two to a room, and five buffet meals a day, said the e-mail. It added that auditions will be held from 2 to 5 Feb next year, and there will be a beginner’s acting class.
Those who are successful in the auditions will attend a three-month advanced acting course conducted by JCE Movies. Nanyang Siang Pau newspaper reported that its entertainment department received the e-mail with six attachments from JCE Movies Limited, Huayi Brothers’ Movie Investment Limited and China Film Group Corporation.
The attachments included rules and an application form, which invited Chinese Singaporeans and Malaysians, aged 1 to 4 years and 18 to 53 years, to the auditions. Applicants had to fill in and sign the form, and attach a 5R full-body photo of themselves to it.
They then had to deposit the RM506.58 fee into a personal bank account for which an English name and account number were provided. Next, the bank transaction slip and application form had to be mailed to a unit in a commercial building in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle district, or sent via e-mail to a given address.
But when a reporter visited the address where the forms were sent, the unit was found to be occupied by a direct sales company. The two receptionists were clueless when asked about the movie audition.
A surprised company official identified only as Mr Xu said he would lodge a police report. He said his company had not received any ‘application forms’ so far.
DINNER AND DANCE
A check with the hotel where the audition was supposed to take place showed that the only booking for the conference room was for a company’s dinner and dance.When Nanyang Siang Pau called the phone number listed in the rules section of the e-mail, the call was answered by a 30-something ‘justice of peace’. He said that the Malaysian branch of the Hong Kong production company was set up specially for the filming and would be shut down after the movie is completed.
He added that the movie will begin filming in May and be released at the end of next year. He repeatedly said that the registration fee can be reduced. At the end of the conversation, the reporter identified himself and revealed that checks had been made with the Hong Kong company and a visit paid to the address in the e-mail. When asked to explain the discrepancies, the man kept silent for a while before hanging up.
The e-mail was said to have been sent to 90 different addresses at 12.30am on 3 Dec and is believed to have since been forwarded to more than 1,000 people.
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