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Thread: The Wandering Earth II

  1. #1
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    The Wandering Earth 2

    We'll split this into its own indie thread in 2022 or so...assuming the lights are still on around here...

    Dec 2, 2020 12:21am PT
    ‘The Wandering Earth’ Sequel Sets Chinese New Year 2023 Release Date


    By Rebecca Davis


    Courtesy of China Film Group
    Director Frant Gwo has announced that the sequel to his sci-fi hit “The Wandering Earth,” China’s third highest grossing film of all time, will release over the 2023 Lunar New Year holiday, consistently the country’s biggest movie-going week of each year.

    “The Wandering Earth” became a surprise hit after its 2019 Lunar New Year debut, beating competitors including Ning Hao’s “Crazy Alien” and Han Han’s “Pegasus” to top that year’s holiday box office. Produced by Beijing Culture on a budget of around $50 million, it grossed $691 million in China, but less than $6 million in North America. It was later picked up by Netflix.

    “After two years of pre-production and thinking about the script, we’ve decided to initiate our shooting plan for ‘The Wandering Earth 2,’ and at the same time have set our release date for New Year’s Day 2023,” set to fall on Jan. 22, Gwo told the public during China’s Golden Rooster Film Festival, which concluded at the weekend. Though a title has yet to be announced, the script is largely completed, he said, adding: “Next, we will try to begin new production processes, and will involve more new technologies.”

    The sequel will again be directed by Gwo, produced by Gong Ge’er, and supervised by sci-fi titan Liu Cixin, who wrote the original 2000 novella from which the first film was adapted.

    “The preparation work for ‘The Wandering Earth 2’ has already been ongoing for some time. We have created a new world full of science fiction elements and are looking forward to audiences discovering new, better plots and more details,” Gong said.

    Fu Ruoqing, vice chairman of China Film Group, which is backing the sequel, said that the challenge of shooting the sequel will spark a rising tide that will lift all boats, improving technical standards in a manner that will benefit the film industry at large. “ ‘The Wandering Earth 2’ will explore ways of streamlining and standardizing production that hopefully will make films get better and better,” he said.


    "Wandering Earth 2" Poster
    A new poster issued for the sequel features the phrase “Goodbye Solar System” written out again and again in numerous languages. “There is a feeling here of the earth setting sail, with the sun on the right side indicating that we will move forward towards a brighter world,” Gwo said of the poster. Promotional materials and events featuring Wu Jing seem to indicate that the bankable star of the original will return for the second instalment, despite his character meeting a seemingly inescapable bad end in the first.

    An extended, 3D “special edition” version of the original film that runs 12 extra minutes is currently back in cinemas, where it has grossed $500,000 since its Nov. 26 debut, ranking a low ninth at the box office Tuesday local time beneath the Harrison Ford-starring “Call of the Wild.”

    Liu’s Hugo Award-winning trilogy “The Three-Body Problem” is set to be adapted into a high-profile TV series by “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss alongside writer-producer Alexander Woo for Netflix. The announcement has stoked early controversy due to objections from U.S. politicians concerned about giving such a platform to Liu’s work given his support of Chinese government policies in Xinjiang, a region where an estimated one million ethnic minority Uyghurs have been placed in internment camps.

    Expectations in China remain high for “The Wandering Earth” sequel, where fans accustomed to the lightening speed production schedules of most Chinese blockbusters bemoaned a release date so atypically far in a future. “Still two whole years to go, but I’m so excited!” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like Weibo social media platform.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #2
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    The Wandering Earth II

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  3. #3
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    CNY box office

    Chinese film industry gets boost from strong showing over Lunar New Year
    With takings of just under US$1 billion, this year’s holiday period beat the 2019 and 2022 performance, although it was below 2021’s record level
    Full River Red by the acclaimed director Zhang Yimou and the sci-fi drama The Wandering Earth II were the most popular features over the holiday
    Yuanyue Dang in Beijing
    + myNEWS
    Published: 9:00pm, 28 Jan, 2023


    An audience settles down for a screeing of Full River Red at a cinema in Shanghai. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

    The Chinese box office performed strongly over the Lunar New Year holiday, lifting the gloom over the country’s film industry and giving a strong boost to the country’s economic recovery.
    As of Saturday, takings stood at 6.8 billion yuan (US$973 million), compared with 5.9 billion yuan during the 2019 Spring Festival and just over 6 billion last year, according to box office statistics provider Maoyan Pro.
    However, the figure was still below 2021’s record figure of 7.8 billion yuan.
    The most popular film was Zhang Yimou’s historical suspense film Full River Red, which accounted for 2.7 billion yuan, followed by the sci-fi movie The Wandering Earth II, which accounted for 2.2 billion.
    According to Maoyan Pro, over 120 million people went to the cinema in China during this year’s Spring Festival holidays.
    A total of seven new films were released in China during this year’s Spring Festival, all of which were domestic films.
    Public interest in Full River Red and The Wandering Earth II, based on a story by the popular sci-fi author Liu Cixin, was boosted by online arguments by rival fans about which of the two films was better.
    Other major releases have not fared so well however. Hidden Blade, a second world war spy thriller, had mixed reviews leading to the ratings website Douban, not disclosing the film’s rating for a while.
    But another new release – Ping Pong: The Triumph, a drama about the men’s team’s victory in the 1995 world championships – was suddenly withdrawn from release on Wednesday because of its dismal box office ratings.
    The Spring Festival has long been regarded as a barometer for the fortunes of the domestic film industry because it has become customary for people to go to the movies during the week-long holiday.
    The box office suffered during the early stages of the pandemic, with many releases being cancelled in 2020 and total takings reaching just over 10 million yuan.
    Although the zero-Covid restrictions in place during the 2021 and 2022 Spring Festivals did not appear to have a significant impact, with several patriotic blockbusters and high ticket prices helping to boost takings.
    Ticket prices for this year’s Spring Festival season fell to 53.5 yuan, down from 56.1 yuan last year.

    All the films released during the holiday were domestic ones. Photo: Getty Images
    The total number of screenings was also down on previous years as the length of films was generally longer this year.
    Financial media outlet 36Kr argued that although the box office total is not as high as in 2021, this year’s Spring Festival performance is already a positive one for the film market.

    CONVERSATIONS (1)
    Yuanyue Dang

    Yuanyue joined the Post in 2022 and covers culture and society news. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a bachelor's degree in journalism and holds a master’s degree in anthropology from University College London. Previously, he worked as a features reporter for Esquire China, The Beijing News and Initium Media.
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    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  4. #4
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    Our latest sweepstakes - Enter to WIN!

    Enter to win The Wandering Earth II on Blu-Ray Disc
    Contest ends 1/4/2024.

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  5. #5
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    Our winners are announced!

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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