Prima donna? Donnie Yen slams accusations

HONG KONG - The knives are out for Donnie Yen and the action star is not pulling his punches in fighting back.

The mud-slinging started after the producers of Iceman: The Time Traveller, which is being shown in cinemas in Singapore, accused the actor of being a prima donna.

He was attacked for changing his lines arbitrarily, amending what the film's action choreographer proposed, and refusing to take part in promotional activities.

But Yen, known for his martial arts movies Ip Man and is now shooting Disney's live-action remake of Mulan in New Zealand, questioned why he was being maligned since the first part of the movie - Iceman - had come out way back in 2014, and that there had been no previous protests from the producers.

He said he was unable to do promotional stints because there was no advance notice and that he was busy with Mulan.

Posting on Weibo, Yen, 55, speculated that the producers were instead trying to whip up controversy in a bid to beef up interest among fans, who have shown lukewarm response to Time Traveller.

In China, it took in only US$4.9 million (S$6.7 million) after 10 days, a disaster compared to another star vehicle, Project Gutenberg, starring Chow Yun Fat and Aaron Kwok, which netted US$181.4 million after 43 days.

Iceman did not set the box office on fire.

Yen aimed a last kick at the producers by saying: "In the future, I can try my best to work only with professional teams to produce excellent works that will live up to my fans' expectation and live up to my passion for the film industry."

He is walking the talk to control his own destiny.

At an event to promote his eyewear brand DonniEYE, he revealed that he would be producing a reboot of the 1978 Hong Kong film Enter The Fat Dragon that starred Sammo Hung.