• Actress Fan Bingbing arrives for the red carpet of the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival at Shanghai Grand Theatre on June 11, 2016 in Shanghai, China.

Actress Fan Bingbing arrives for the red carpet of the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival at Shanghai Grand Theatre on June 11, 2016 in Shanghai, China. (Photo : Getty Images / Visual China)

The North American distribution rights of "I am Not Madame Bovary" was bought by Well Go USA Entertainment following its premiere on Sept. 8, Thursday, at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The film stars Fan Bingbing, Da Peng and Guo Tao, and is directed by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang. Well Go USA committed to release the film in the United States and Canada on Oct. 7, following its release in China on Sept. 30.

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Negotiating the deal were Doris Pfardrescher, president and CEO of Well Go USA Entertainment and Clarence Tang of Golden Network, who takes charge of Asian sales, along with CAA. Handling Europe is Wild Bunch.

Based on the 2012 novel "I Did Not Kill My Husband" by Liu Zhenyun, "I am Not Madame Bovary" is a story of a village woman accused of committing adultery. After a ruling is made against her, she begins the long-term journey of redeeming her reputation and prove that her divorce was fake which she and her husband agreed as a couple in order to obtain a property.

Presenting the film are Sparkle Roll Media Corp., Beijing Skywheel Entertainment, Zhejiang Dongyang Mayla Media, Huayi Brothers Media Corp. and Huayi Brothers Pictures with Song Ge, Wang Zhonglei, Wang Zhongjun and Qi Jianhong. Produced by Zhang Dajun, it has Zhou Maofei, Jerry Ye, Wang Zhonglei and Zhao Lei as executive producers while Hu Xiaofeng, Wang Yang and Joe Tam co-produce, Variety reported.

Meanwhile, Chinese actress Fan hopes the title of their film will help make it attractive to viewers. It is taken from the novel "Madame Bovary" by 19th century author Gustave Flaubert about an adulterous woman who cheated to escape her boring country life. As the title says, the woman in Fan's film is not adulterous.

"Because [Madame Bovary] is so iconic, I think it's a really interesting character that audiences know immediately," Fan told Reuters. "I want audiences to appreciate the title when they see the film later."

Fan's co-star in the film Guo hopes the story would draw global audience, though the film is very Chinese. Here is the trailer of Feng's upcoming movie.


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