Youku Tudou is one of the firms who joined the latest film trend of turning miniseries into movies. (Photo : Reuters)
"Surprise," an online comedy hit, will soon land on the big screen. The news surfaced after Heyi Pictures announced its plan to make a movie adaption for the Web smash.
The comedy sensation lauds over two billion cumulative views since its release in 2013. It revolves around the (mis)adventures of a certain Dachui Wang as he goes through modern and classic scenarios.
The movie project will be helmed by Yi Xiaoxing. Chinese author-film director Han Han wil serve as the art director and Huang Jianxing will be the executive producer.
Moreover, the beverage firm Wanglaoji is reported to invest $3.22 million for the film's production.
"By bringing Huang and Han and Yi on board we are giving the existing intellectual property more content to make it fuller and give it a longer life over time," Heyi Pictures CEO Alien Zhu remarked.
"What motivates me is the ability to make something new. I became emotionally involved in the Web series and saw there are new formats and new ways of delivering emotional punches," Huang said.
Meanwhile, Heyi Pictures, in which e-commerce Alibaba has an 18.5-percent stake, has earlier released its movie slate for this year. Zhu reveled that the firm will focus on genre films.
Since 2014, Heyi Pictured and its previous incarnation at Yokou Tudou have co-produced a total of 15 tiltes and pulled in more than $690 million from the Chinese box office. The titles include "The Continent," "The Taking of Tiger Mountain" and "Fleet of Time."
