Guo Jingming, creator of the spectacularly successful Shanghai tale of wealthy Chinese youngsters, Tiny Times, has announced the third film in the franchise will start shooting next month.
A singularly New China tale of willowy rich girls and sweetly handsome boys, Tiny Times has struck a chord with a generation of freshly wealthy young Chinese, broken box-office records and infuriated critics.
Guo wrote on his Twitter-style Weibo page: "Last year, when I was a first-time director, I asked "Are those who love Tiny Times still around? Well, I might have to ask the same question this year, because Tiny Times 3 will officially start production in December. Next summer, let the future explode again."
In a later posting, he said the cast would be different this time around. Local media had mentioned potential scheduling conflicts.
"Everybody has been asking if Tiny Times will have the same actors and actresses. I am very sorry to tell everybody that I didn't get the old group back. I tried my best, but I failed. Very, very sorry. Thanks to all the actors and actresses for the first one and the second one."
The first two films opened within five weeks of each other and grossed $128 million.
The Shanghai-set series is a tale of the love lives and burgeoning careers of four girls who come from different backgrounds but share a fondness for Hermes and Louis Vuitton. The films' ostentatious displays of luxury have been criticized as shallow by critics, distorting young people's values, but they have scored highly with people born after 1980, which is really the movie's key demographic.
Hailing from a humble background in southwest China, Guo won various literature prizes and has become a best-selling author with his books, which combine lifestyle themes and designer labels with distinctly Chinese settings.
His debut novel City of Fantasies sold 1.5 million copies. Last year he made the Forbes’ Rich Chinese list with an income of $4.5 million.
The diminutive author also has a successful publishing business, and he flaunts his wealth with his luxurious lifestyle and taste for designer clothes.
Scripts for the third and fourth Tiny Times films were approved by the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) back in July.