Arthouse icon Wong Kar-wai to make 1st movie for Alibaba Pictures

PanARMENIAN.Net - Arthouse icon Wong Kar-wai will produce his first movie for Alibaba Pictures group, the film production arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Variety said.

The film, “Bai Du Ren” (which translates as “Ferryman”), will be written and directed by Chinese novelist Zhang Jiajia as an adaptation of his own short story.

The picture will star Wong regular Tony Leung Chiu-wai.

The film is also the first to be greenlighted by Alibaba Pictures Group since the stock-market-listed Chinavision was acquired by Alibaba and renamed.

The company revealed that it has also acquired international rights to Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Wolf Totem” and the right to adapt “My Fair Princess.”

Prior to becoming Alibaba Pictures Group, Chinavision struck priority investment deals with Wong’s Block 2 company, Peter Chan Ho-sun’s We Pictures and with Stephen Chow. A recent report showed that Alibaba Pictures Group had paid RMB50 million for Chow to pitch five projects, all of which it had turned down.