‘Mermaid’ blockbuster to be adapted for television
BEIJING: China’s biggest movie ever, Stephen Chow’s blockbuster The Mermaid, which earned an astonishing US$527 million in 2016, is set to be remade for television.
Beijing-based iQiyi has paid a record US$61.8 million (RM266 million) for exclusive streaming rights to the show, which sources in China say will be scripted and produced by Stephen Chow.
Chinese production company Shanghai New Culture Media Group revealed in a regulatory filing that it has sold the exclusive online streaming rights to the forthcoming show to Beijing-based SVOD company iQiyi — setting a record for streaming video rights in the country.
Local Chinese media sources are reporting that Chow will script and produce the TV drama adaptation himself.
New Culture Media also said in a second filing that it has sold to iQiyi the exclusive broadcast and online streaming rights to another forthcoming TV drama based on a Chow blockbuster — 2017’s Journey to the West:
Beijing-based iQiyi has paid a record US$61.8 million (RM266 million) for exclusive streaming rights to the show, which sources in China say will be scripted and produced by Stephen Chow.
The Demons Strike Back, which was released over Chinese New Year in late January and earned US$240 million (RM1.03 billion) in China. iQiyi paid US$42.4 million for those rights, the filing said. Both of the new shows will be developed and produced by New Culture Media.
In early 2017, Shanghai New Culture Media Group, whose stock is listed on the Shenzhen exchange with a market capitalisation of US$1.3 billion, acquired a 51 per cent stake in Premium Data Associates Limited, a production and rights management company founded and owned by Chow, for US$195.7 million. Chow retained a 49 per cent stake in the entity.
iQiyi, a subsidiary of Chinese search giant Baidu, has been on a Netflix-like buying spree since raising US$1.5 billion in February. While the company continues to beef up on highvalue local content like the new Chow shows, it also has been buying prestige US content aggressively.
In March, iQiyi acquired exclusive Chinese online rights to 2017 Oscar favourites La La Land and Moonlight (it’s unclear whether the latter will be able to clear Chinese censorship, however).
And in April, iQiyi inked an output agreement with Netflix, which has been barred from setting up its service within China by Beijing’s regulators. iQiyi said it hopes to import such Netflix originals as Black Mirror, Stranger Things, Mindhunter, BoJack Horseman and Ultimate Beastmaster — as soon as the required government approvals are granted.