In the wake of China announcing their biggest box office year to-date, production and distribution companies from all over the world are falling over each other to strike deals in China. The most recent company to announce its intentions is Relativity Media, who is embarking on a new partnership with SAIF Partners and IDG China Media to produce and distribute Chinese films that they hope will have international appeal. It's a move that will help Relativity muscle in on the action being cultivated by companies like China Lion Entertainment, who has handled North American releases of a number of recent Chinese hits - sometimes day-and-date with China - including Feng Xiaogang's AFTERSHOCK, Party favourite BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL and soft-porn comedy 3D SEX AND ZEN.
Relativity has enjoyed its fair share of success in recent years, with a string of critical and commercial hits including Oscar winners THE SOCIAL NETWORK and THE FIGHTER, along with more niche titles such as ZOMBIELAND and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. Their new Chinese partners have already been working together for the past couple of years and the newly formed Skyland Entertainment has produced such films as SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN, starring Li Bing Bing and Jeon Ji Hyun. Through this new agreement, Relativity Media intends not only to produce films in China for an international market, but also to bring projects from overseas into China for distribution. With Skyland as a production partner, foreign films may well qualify as China co-productions, exempting them from China's strict quota of overseas films.
Skyland's next slated release is the long-in-development opera/martial arts drama MY KINGDOM, starring Wu Chun, Han Geng and Barbie Hsu. The film has been four years in the making and promises to be "a sweeping story of love, honor and revenge set against the backdrop of Chinese opera during its heyday in 1920s Shanghai," to quote a recently issued press release. Directed by up-and-comer Gao Xiaosong, MY KINGDOM was written by Zou Jingzhi, whose previous screenplays include recent KUNG FU PANDA knock-off LEGEND OF A RABBIT but also Wong Kar Wai's THE GRANDMASTERS. The film boasts fight choreography by Sammo Hung, and an appearance by Yuen Biao, which should help it attract attention overseas. The film, co-produced by Celestial Pictures, opens domestically in September, before rolling out into North America, Australia and other Asian territories.
Despite its grounding in traditional Chinese culture seemingly more appealing to older generations, MY KINGDOM is keen to tap into the youth market and attract a younger crowd. Not only is its young cast of pretty young things popular on the mainland, but Celestial have also developed an online game to co-incide with the film's release. The game can be played via a specially designed iPhone app or on your PC, via the film's official website. The film's producers are hoping the game will help familiarize its potential audience with the characters and basic plot of the film - which concerns the plight of two orphans raised in the arts of traditional Chinese opera and kung-fu - as well as give Celestial some insight into their gaming habits, as they look towards more interactive media in the future.
Elsewhere, Stephen Chow has recently announced that he now will be starring in the rebooted CHINESE ODYSSEY film after all. Originally Chow was only onboard the latest adaptation of the Journey To The West as a writer and producer, but it seems that he just can't stay away. There is no news about which character Chow will play, although there has been some insistence that he will not be reprising his role of the Monkey King, which was at one point slated to be played by 72 different actors simultaneously, although there was no indication of how that was to be accomplished. Another major addition to this version, which is being helmed by GALLANTS director Derek Kwok, is that of Shu Qi, in a newly created role as a warrior swordswoman. While there is no denying that seeing Chow in front of the camera in a new version of the greatest of all Chinese folktales is enticing, something about this news hints that he is picking at a loose thread which may yet cause this entire project to unravel.
Finally, a nation waits with baited breath to see just how much China has been turned blue. August 10 saw the release of THE SMURFS on the mainland, the culmination of a huge sustained marketing campaign that is just part of a nationwide re-launch of the little blue Belgians as a major presence in the country. The original cartoons were incredibly popular with Chinese children back in the 1980s, who have now grown up to have children of their own. It has been announced that a Smurfs theme park is in the works and they also featured prominently as the official mascots of the Beijing Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Fair. Despite poor word of mouth from overseas, the film has already taken HK$10 million in ten days down in Hong Kong, but is on track to demolish that figure north of the border in the coming days and weeks. The prospect of Neil Patrick Harris dominating the world's next superpower has become a frightening, but very real prospect.
China can't make a good film for years. Aftershock is a lame propaganda shit. All my expectation now turn to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Wang Kar Wai and his latest The Grandmaster is my only hope.
You do know that one of Sun Wukong's powers is having hairs plucked from him turned in copies of himself, right? And having numerous extras playing them (China having, if it has anything, a abundance of people) sounds somewhat easier than separately photographing and digitally compositioning that number of the the same same person.
(But don't get me started on the 1980s Smurf cartoons being the "the original" – even if you mean animated cartoons there have been those since the '60s. But I'm getting thicker-skinned to it, current environment being what it is.)
Just catching up and still enjoying the reads. I imagine you'll let us know if/when something comes up re: SEEDIQ BALE. I found that bit interesting and am curious how it will turn out.