After being fined $1.2 million for disobeying China's one-child policy and the flop that was The Flowers of War, top Chinese director Zhang Yimou could use a return to form. Set in the politically sensitive Cultural Revolution period, this film tells the story of an intellectual who is forced into marriage, flees to America and on his return to China is sent to a labor camp. The film stars Chen Daoming and Gong Li, with whom Zhang has produced some of his most acclaimed work (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern).
China’s LeVision Pictures will screen director Zhang Yimou‘s latest film, Home Coming, in 4K quality on Imax screens. In a parallel announcement, the group also signed emerging director Lu Chuan to make films.
Home Coming is currently in postproduction, Zhang told a news conference in Beijing where LeVision announced its 2014 slate. LeVision CEO Zhang Zhao said Home Coming — which tells the story of a female writer’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution, a time of great ideological upheaval in the 1960s and 1970s — was the company’s top priority for the current year.
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Imax recently inked a deal with property and media conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group to build 210 large-format theaters in China by 2021.
LeVision unveiled a distribution slate of 15 titles, including The Expendables 3, the next installment of zeitgeisty romance Tiny Times, and John Woo‘s much-anticipated The Crossing, as well as Iceman 3D.
Zhang Zhao said he expected the company’s releases this year to earn $489 million at the box office.
Among those attending the event were Imax’s greater China chief Chen Jiande and Imax head of international development, Anthony Vogels.
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Lu, director of City of Life and Death and Kekexili: Mountain Patrol is generally considered one of the strongest talents to come out of China in recent years, and the move to LeVision is quite a coup, after Zhang Yimou joined in May last year.
“Filmmaking is a cooperative venture. Working with LeVision will give me the scope to be a more dutiful director,” said Lu, adding that he grew up watching Zhang Yimou’s movies and was very excited about being on the same slate.
