Headlines from China: China to Remake War Classics ‘The Bridge’ and ‘Walter Defends Sarajevo’

China to Remake War Classics ‘The Bridge’ and ‘Walter Defends Sarajevo’

Recently, Chinese film production company Huahua Media, Sarajevo Film Center, and a Serbian production company signed a deal to remake 1969 war classic The Bridge. The three parties have also reached an agreement to remake Walter Defends Sarajevo together. Ambassador of Serbian to China Milan Bacevic and ambassador of Bosnia Herzegovina Anton Rill attended the deal-signing event. Currently, The Bridge is in pre-production. An international crew will be formed to start the filming at the beginning of 2020. Read more on Sohu

Chinese Market Sees Less Comedy Films This Year

One-third of 2019 has passed. China box office was rather disappointing in Q1 with a 14.47% decrease year-over-year. Q2 box office is more hopeful thanks to Avengers: Endgame. Upcoming 2019 releases are a diverse slate with a wide variety of genres including war drama, crime drama, biographical movies, comedies, action movies, and adventure movies. Compared to last year, 2019 sees less comedy films partly due to the poor performance of a slew of comedy films since last October. Action films maintain a strong momentum this year with a few upcoming Hong Kong-mainland co-productions being highly anticipated. In addition, because 2019 is the 70th anniversary of the founding of PRC, several propaganda films have been slated to release in October during the National Day holiday. Read more on entgroup.cn

‘The Wandering Earth’ Finishes Theatrical Run in China with $686 M

On May 6, the theatrical run of Chinese science fiction film The Wandering Earth was finally over. Released on February 5, the Chinese New Year’s Day, the film earned a total of RMB 4.66 billion ($686 million) at the box office during its theatrical run, which makes it the second highest grossing film of all time in China behind Wolf Warrior 2. The film is produced by China Film Group, Beijing Culture and Wu Jing’s Beijing Dengfeng International Media Co. Alibaba Pictures, Tencent Pictures, Hunan TV, Yaolai Pictures and Shanghai Film Group also co-produced the film. Read more on yicai