Posted: Mon., May 25, 2009, 10:35pm PT
3-D heads to TV with 'Wu Cheng-en'
Project has been in the works for five years
By CLIFFORD COONAN
BEIJING -- A Chinese shingle is planning to take the country's current 3-D
craze to the small screen with a 45-episode costume drama "Wu Cheng-en and
the Journey to the West," based on an ancient Chinese legend.
Producer Wu Qiuyun told the Beijing News that he believes the
130-million-yuan ($19 million) skein is the first 3-D TV series in the
world. The project has been five years in the making and still has 18
months of post-production to complete. Some 90 million yuan ($13 million)
of the budget went on the 3-D effects.
Keen to ensure the drama is not seen as a gimmick because of its high-tech
credentials, the producers have reunited the original stars of the 1986
skein "Journey to the West," a production which is one of the most famous
TV shows in Chinese history. LiuXiao Lingtong, Chi Chongrui and Ma Dehua
will all be involved in the skein.
LiuXiao Lingtong will play the Monkey King in the drama and will also play
the original author Wu Cheng-en. Liu Dagang will take the place of Sha
Wujing, who died in the interim.
The drama began shooting in Hengdian studios two years ago, but the
producer did not release the fact that it would contain 3-D scenes,
because they were worried the technology would not work. Each 45-minute
episode will contain around 10 minutes of 3-D scenes.
"This drama is about the arduous process of Wu Cheng-en's writing "The
Journey to the West." But if the main storyline was only Wu Cheng-en, that
may affect the audience ratings. So we put the same actors in "The Journey
to the West" together, and re-filmed some parts of it, and then made those
into 3-D," said Wu.
The producers have created special glasses for watching the skein, and
plans to distribute them through large-scale marketing events.
"If the audience watches the drama without three-dimensional glasses, the
image will be slightly doubled," he said.
China's first 3-D toon, "The Carnival of The Animals," was released
earlier this year. It was produced by the animation unit of the giant
state 'caster CCTV, and includes the voices of some of CCTV Children's
Channel leading hosts Ju Ping, Dong Hao and Liu Chunyan.
