Epic effort

Film director Wuershan is spending a decade adapting a classic novel into a film trilogy, Xu Fan reports.

With a big budget and a crew of more than 2,000 members, Chinese film director Wuershan says he is spending a decade adapting a mythological epic into cinema.

"The Chinese film market has reached a phase and scale with which we can produce grand works that showcase the country's rich legacies in history and culture," Wuershan, who turned 47 in early June, says during an interview with China Daily.

"I have selected the most important work from my perspective and I expect to spend 10 years on the film project."

His Fengshen Trilogy films is adapted from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel Fengshen Yanyi (Creation of the Gods), a mythical retelling of a war from more than 3,000 years ago. Its major storyline unfolds through a subsidiary state's ruler who leads an army to defeat a tyrant. The novel fictionalizes a turbulent era when two conflicting human forces get help from supernatural beings such as deities and spirits.

A lot of money and time will be needed to bring the story onto the big screen, with special effects playing a major role.

Fascinated by the novel since childhood, the filmmaker who was born in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, announced the project's launch in 2012. Wuershan is one of China's best fantasy film directors, exemplified by the blockbusters Painted Skin: The Resurrection and Mojin: The Lost Legend. He chose Beijing Culture as a partner for the film project.