Great expectations for China-US megamovie The Great Wall
Is monsters-versus-medieval Chinese army fantasy directed by Zhang Yimou the start of something big, and could it be a box office bomb?
More than four years ago, just as China's movie market was starting to boom, the executive producer behind blockbusters , and was casting about for a concept that might particularly suit Chinese audiences and gain a worldwide audience.
Thomas Tull's fanboy imagination wandered to the Great Wall. What if, he wondered, the iconic edifice was built not to keep out hordes of Mongolians and other human invaders but to defend against fantastic monsters?
That was in 2010, when China's annual box office receipts were a mere US$1.5 billion, compared with US$4.8 billion last year. Even with the market growing at a rapid clip, the notion of shooting a big-budget, English-language film set hundreds of years ago in China - and based on an original American script with no built-in fan base - seemed like a fanciful business proposition.
But that is exactly what Tull's Legendary Entertainment is now in the midst of doing.
Tull recruited China's most famous director, Zhang Yimou, to head the US$150 million project and enlisted powerful investors including state-run China Film Group and LeVision Pictures.
Matt Damon and Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah are anchoring a cast peppered with Chinese heartthrobs who appeal to young Chinese women.
