On June 12, Tencent Penguin Pictures held a press conference in Shanghai wherein they released a comprehensive list of titles, many of which are drama adaptations based on popular novels. It really sums up to a lot when you put them all together, which ultimately gives a little something for everybody to enjoy.
The cast of The Message 风声, which includes Xu Lu, Janice Man, Tony Yoning Yang, Sun Zhi Jian and Yu Ai Lei came specially for the event. The Message is based on a novel of the same name by Mai Jia 麦家 that was made into a spy thriller starring Zhou Xun, Li Bing Bing, Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Hanyu, Alec Su and Wang Zhi Wen. The movie was a commercial and critical success, so I can only imagine the potential for its drama counterpart.
The King’s Avatar 全职高手, which is based on a novel by Butterfly Blue 蝴蝶蓝 has announced Yang Yang as the lead. It’s a nod to Love O2O in a way given that the actor will be playing an expert gamer once more and guys, there is an animated adaptation of the novel floating around. And seriously, Yang Yang is the perfect choice in my mind for a live action anime.
Next up is our favorite teenage actor Leo Wu Lei, who will be headlining Sha Hai 沙海, a mystery adventure adapted from a novel by Nan Pai San Shu 南派三叔. The stories form the latter part of the author’s Tomb Raider franchise revolving around a young student named Li Cu as the main protagonist.
It’s interesting that Tencent has also unveiled that it is working on a huge bevy of Candle in the Tomb adaptations. Candle in the Tomb circles in the exact same genre but it is based on the novels by Tian Xia Ba Chang 天下霸唱. A well-established team of veterans has already been placed behind the scenes and it includes Producer Hou Hong Liang of Nirvana in Fire, Directors Guan Hu and Zhang Li.
Aside from the drama announcements, there are existing projects like See You Again, Only Side By Side With You and The Majesty of Wolf as well as dramas that have been categorized as big productions such as Secret of the Three Kingdoms, Legend of Fuyao and Fights Break Sphere.
I honestly think I may have squealed when I saw the words Three Lives Three Worlds, the Pillow Book, which is simply put, only the highly-anticipated sequel to Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms. Other sequels include Novoland Castle in the Sky 2 and Medical Examiner Dr. Qin 3. It is way too early to tell if and when these are happening but at least someone has it on their radar. More titles below…
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ann
I love the king's avatar anime and it's pleasure me to know yangyang will play as yexiu. the rumour leading lady is dilireba, i hope it's true. I saw zhang li's name for candle in the tomb, is that same director with yangyang's martial universe? i thought fights break sphere is produced by youku because martial universe is produced by youku (that novels is sharing universe because the author is same)
quantum
King's avatar live action just sound like a cash grab. The original novel has no romance whatsoever (just implied interest from one of the female leads) and the gaming scenes will be executed with a terribly executed CGI. I really don't see how they are going to do this unless they write an original content, which will just makes the live action in name only.
I don't expect this to do well among actual fans of the novel, it might do great with the female audience however due to Yang Yang.
Anonymous
I want Dilraba to star in Eternal Love's sequel instead, but it's impossible 🙁
Anne J
ooh I didn't hear about that but would definitely love to see Dilraba join. And yes, Zhang Li is the same director for Martial Universe.
As for Fights Break Sphere, I'm assuming it's produced by Tencent since they're advertising it on weibo, other than that I don't know:) But on that note, I believe Fight will air on QQ.com, which is owned by Tencent so it's probably not owned by Youku. I really like the shared universe idea though if only they could make it happen.