An English language version of the Chinese classic tale, The Monkey King, is coming to the big screen.
This is the first time the story is being done in English, although I do remember in 1983 ABC aired a special title Big Bird in China featured the Monkey King.
Variety reports the Los Angeles-based Abstract Entertainment is teaming up with China-based Eracme Entertainment to produce the adventure.
Last year Donnie Yen starred in a Hong Kong production of Monkey King and the sequel Monkey King2 will be released on the first day of Chinese New Year in 2016. Last year’s version was the third highest grossing film in China, taking in $167 million.
The English-version will be penned by Christopher Yost who wrote Thor: The Dark World.
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“There has been a rush to bring Western-originated movies to the Chinese market,” Abstract Entertainment said in a statement. “’Monkey’ reverses that and will be the first English-language film focused on introducing a Chinese tale to the international audience, in a contemporary setting.”
With the Chinese production company behind the film, it’s likely it will remain truthful to the tale. The story has survived five centuries and I’m looking forward to hearing more about it as details are worked out.
You can read about some of the people behind the project and their hopes for this film in Variety .
