A Protestant pastor became the first Christian clergy in Hong Kong to be convicted of sedition since the city’s pro-Beijing administration imposed the draconian national security law to crush the pro-democracy movement two years ago.
Magistrate Cheng Lim-chi at the West Kowloon Court jailed Pastor Garry Pang Moon-yuen, 59, for 10 months for sedition and three months for seditious speech on Oct. 27, reported Hong Kong Free Press.
Pastor Pang reportedly claimed himself “victorious” though he accepted the verdict of a one-year jail term.
Pang said that he was still victorious in terms of “safeguarding conscience, defending freedoms, human rights, and rule of law,” while adding that “history would acquit him.”
Pang was arrested for his comments during the hearing of activist Chow Hang-tung on Jan. 4, which was related to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, and videos and live streams on his YouTube channel.
, and I finished reading it this morning. Sam’s journey has been incredible and believe me when I tell you, this is one of the true good people in this industry.
My first real feature film, When the Starlight Ends, featured Sam as the lead, and while that film was a…learning experience (to put it nicely) for me, Sam’s performance was tremendous and he poured his heart into the film and the role.
And while it is too painful for me to watch that film now, as it turned out so differently from what I set out to make…the one thing I will never, ever forget, was how Sam, an ascending star at the time, believed in me. And I don’t use that phrase lightly. Sam went to bat for me in a way few others have, during my career, with absolutely no selfish or ulterior motives whatsoever. He got fucked around royally on that film and at any point could have said “Adam, love ya bud, but this is bullshit and I’m out of here”, but he didn’t. Instead, he fought on my behalf, and trust me when I say, finding somewhere who will do that is a real rarity in this town.
, and all of your success. I can proudly say that I knew even way back before Outlander, when we went out and did surveillance together (haha!), that I knew you were gonna be a huge star
Ah congrats on all your success bud, you put in the hustle, loved working with you.x
TIBS: Can we talk for a few minutes about Sam Heughan, because he’s the reason that I’m coming through to talk to you about this film. LIke I said, I have great respect for Sam as a person and as an actor. I’ve met him a couple of times, I’ve had the good fortune to interview him briefly more than once. What did he bring to this – and you said he read the script three years before – how did you get involved with him for this project?
Adam: It’s kind of a long story. I met Sam long before Outlander. So it must have been a year, probably 2 years before Outlander was even a thing. I met him through a casting director, she said “here’s a good looking Scottish guy, he’s terrific, he’s passionate, you’ll like him. You should meet him.” I asked can I give him When the Starlight Ends, she said sure. So I met Sam at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, he was just so friendly, he was raving on and on about my script. We chatted for a while, and then he sent me this email after our meeting, that was just six pages of just raving about the script. And I was like, oh man, that’s so nice, and we stayed in touch. And then he came out to LA, I want to say probably the following year, for pilot season, and I was like, I’m trying to get this movie made, it’s tough to get funded, they want me to have big stars, and I can’t get big stars, I just want to make this frickin’ movie. And he said, I know.
So then, he messaged me on Facebook, this would have been early or mid 2014, I think it will be big, maybe it could mean we could get Starlight made. I was like, OK, whatever, I have friends who have booked shows all time. And then I started seeing from friends who are not even movie industry people, posting pictures of Sam. I was like, what the hell is going on here? Then obviously it came out that he was the lead guy on Outlander. I was like dude, congratulations, he said thanks, so are we still going to make Starlight? And I said, yeah, but you’re like a star now, do you still want to do it? Absolutely. I went to the premiere of the first episode, in San Diego…
TIBS: I went there too! I was just rows behind you then!
Adam: So funny! My wife and I were there, we chatted about it more, about the script, he said what do you want to do? So, in the mid part of 2014, I started talking to this management company, they said this guy Sam’s a star now, does he really want to do your movie? And I said, I think so. And so we talked to UGA and Sam, and UGA was basically like, Sam, don’t do this movie. And Sam was like, no, I like this guy, I like this script, I want to do it. And I was like, OK, man if you really want to do it.
And then he got basically – Arabella came about late in the process. And he was like, if you like this girl, she’s perfect, you think she’s right for it, we could probably get financing. So we flew out, Sam and I both hung with her and read with her and we both thought she was really good. So I said, yeah, I’m down with this girl. And so we got financed, Sam was great.
There were a dozen times in the whole preproduction/prep/post-Outlander, pre-Starlight discussion phase that Sam easily could have said I’m getting studio production offers now, I want to go with a big show, yeah, I like your little indie script, but we’re cool – but he stuck with it the whole time, and there were things that became very difficult in preproduction, that he totally said I’m still in, let’s do it. And it was quite a hectic shoot, and he was very sweet to everyone the whole time, and he’s a great guy. One of the actors I owe a whole lot to for how the film turned out.
TIBS: I did have one problem with it, though – his American accent was awful.
Adam: You think so? He worked on it a lot with an accent coach, there were some lines and words that I felt like could have been different, but it didn’t bother me that much. Maybe I just got so used to it. But it wasn’t one of the things sbout the movie that bothered me. I know a lot of people had an issue with it, but I actually thought it was pretty good.
TIBS: Well, it was something that I could overlook because I like Sam so much…
Adam: Sure… that could have been my problem too.
TIBS: But there was one line – at point he says “I could come out for the weekEND.” In a very British pronunciation.
Adam: There were little things like that that I noticed as well.. he kept saying “frusTRATed,” and I kept saying “no no, FRUSTrated.” There were little things that were frustRATing, no, no FRUSTrating. But I can’t even imagine, my British and Scottish accents aren’t great, it didn’t bother me throughout the film. I also – there was nothing that said “this guy needs to be American.” I didn’t want to to go with his full Scottish accent, because I thought it would be a little tricky with the script written as it was, but I didn’t mind if he had a touch of an accent.
TIBS: Right, there was nothing in the film that said, “well, when I grew up in Detroit…”
Adam: Exactly.
TIBS: So we were kind of wondering why – and if it didn’t bother you, then it wouldn’t have occurred to you – why you didn’t just decide he was born in Britain, because Sam does a great soft British accent.
Adam: I feel like, too, that Sam really wanted to do an American accent. I think he pushed for that. And I said, sure, he worked with an accent coach, I thought he did pretty good.
TIBS: Well, we’re going to give that to him because we love him so much.
Adam: There you go.
TIBS: He’s a terrific actor and a terrific person, so we’re happy to have him wherever we get him
Tori