Thursday, May 9, 2013

JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD HELMS SWEEPING ASIAN SAGA "WOLF TOTEM"! RIDLEY SCOTT PREPARING "THE TERROR" ARCTIC SHOW & "RAIDERS" WW2 SHOW! "BLACK SAILS" PIRATE SERIES POSTER!

  JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD
 HELMS WOLF TOTEM ASIAN EPIC
As some of you know your trusted Dezzy works as a book translator when not being HOLLYWOOD SPY and I must confess that one of my favourite translations in my career was of sweeping Asian saga WOLF 
TOTEM by Jiang Rong which took 30 years in writing and won famous Man Prize (that's Asian Booker). Click for the Serbian cover. Now amazing director Jean Jacques Annaud is adapting the novel for the big screen! According to THR Chinese stars Feng Shaofeng and Shawn Dou Xiao will take the lead roles in the French Chinese co production. Feng will play a student being sent down to work in the Inner Mongolian steppes during China's Cultural Revolution, and whose new way of life is thrown into chaos as an apparatchik orders the killing of all wolves living in the area. He saves one of the baby wolves and the saga then follows him raising the cub, learning to live with the nature in the traditional way of the steppes scorched by boiling summers and freezing winters with no electricity nor houses. The novel also depicts how the destruction of the steppes lead to today's Beijing being whipped by sandstorms coming from the deserts where once lush green fields were. This is also a chance for Annaud to redeem himself in China since he was banned there for many years due to his depiction of the Chinese people in his infamous film SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET!

  RIDLEY SCOTT'S SHOWS
TERROR & RAIDERS 

Meanwhile, over at AMC, according to Deadline, Ridley Scott's production company is preparing some great new shows! I've already written about THE TERROR which is set in 1847 and follows the crew of a Royal Naval expedition in search of the Arctic’s treacherous Northwest Passage. Instead, they discover a monstrous predator that stalks the ships in a desperate game of survival, which could threaten the region and its native people forever. Ridley is also preparing an untitled futuristic, dystopian, sci-fi saga from the producers of FRINGE and THE WALKING DEAD, and RAIDERS, a WWII drama about a rogue U.S. Navy commander who leads an unconventional warfare unit into the heart of Africa on a mission that will bend the arc of history. Ridley's company is also preparing VATICAN show for Showtime and CLONDIKE for Discovery Channel.

  BLACK SAILS
 NEW EPIC SHOW POSTER
Check out the first poster for Starz new epic show BLACK SAILS which will hit the small screens next January taking over the primetime from SPARTACUS. Produced by Michael Bay it is sort of a prequel to famous TREASURE ISLAND story and it revolves around Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his men with the whole plot being set 20 years before Robert Louis Stevenson's original story. The series will feature Flint, the most feared pirate of his day, as he expands his ranks and adds John Silver (Luke Arnold) to his crew. The eight part series also has MERLIN's Tom Hopper in the cast alongside Zach McGowan, Hannah New and Jessica Parker Kennedy

30 comments:

  1. Black Sails doesn't look too bad at all!

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    1. you liked the lady action in the trailer, I presume,Fran :P

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  2. Wolf Totem sounds very intriguing. I'll watch for it when it's eventually released.

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    1. the director is great and the book is really outstanding, a true literary gem in today's world of superficial bestsellers.

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  3. whhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt.... i mean, cool!

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  4. The Terror was an interesting book and based on a real event - except for the monster part! Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors and I'll be interested to see how the film version turns out.

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    1. Fingers crossed it turns out fine, the setting is certainly intriguing and original especially with the time period.

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  5. The Terror sounds interesting.

    That poster is creepy.

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    1. yep, for some reason they're opting for very dark and strange imagery for BLACK SAILS

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  6. Not sure why he would want to get back into China, the entire country is a mess. Also, sandstorms are the least of Beijing's worries, especially considering how bad the pollution is.

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    1. Because he spent his childhood in the city as a son of a university professor and is an urban kid, so the forced transportation to Mongolia is a shock to him in every respect.

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  7. Wolf Totem is full of complexity. It's also a bit of history that the Western World doesn't know a great deal about. Partly because China was impenetrable until more recent times. It will be nice for you to see that one done darling.

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    1. it really is a beautiful book and it made me cry in the end which not many books did in my life :) Another of my books - BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP is also in movie production with Kidman and Mark Strong

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  8. Films by Michael Bay make me cry and look for my Momma. I just really don't like them. Too noisy. Too over the top.

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    1. I don't like him either, but we shall have another of his new shows featured later today :)

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  9. I am all kinds of excited today (all except Michael Bay...I like the sound of the concept of the show! And the trailer looks good...maybe since he's only Executive Producing everything won't go boom ever 15 seconds...) Almost everything sounds great...and I am especially excited about Wolf Totem...since I feel a bit of a connection with you and all!! Keep it coming!

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    1. I just with they did BLACK SAILS in a more glamorous and adventurous way, and not so dark and cold like VIKINGS. Hopefully, NBC's CROSSBONES will be different.

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  10. On your piccy you have Fang... now that's a cool name. Shame it's Feng ;) giggle.
    Looking forward to seeing Black Sails.

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    1. but I didn't make the slip in the post itself :) and he can feng us anytime.....

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    2. it's interesting that he is the same age as moiself :)

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    3. hahahah, you're awesome, Dezzy. Yep! I totally agree, he can feng us anytime ;)

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    4. it would be a memorable experience for sure....

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  11. They sound like great titles, looking forward to seeing them. Wanna be cheered up ? Check out my new bog, maybe you'll like it

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  12. Tom Hopper... Hallelujah!!! What a tasty big boy. LOL These all sound like amazing projects and I can't wait for them. :)

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    1. We do lurv Hopper, although I don't like his starved looks in this one :((( I want to feed him and help him recover :)

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