A new take on the story of RMS Titanic will set sale in early 2017, with a Chinese-American production tackling the legend that stood at the top of Chinese box office records for more than a decade.
Produced by Sun Seven Stars Media Group subsidiary Seven Stars Entertainment, along with the new joint venture between Hong Kong’s Bruno Wu and American Arthur Sarkissian’s Peak Time Entertainment, the script will focus on a conspiratorial plot involving the liner’s sinking, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.
Filming is expected to begin in early 2017, with what the producers said will be a global release around Christmas 2017.
The script will be written by David Marconi (The Foreigner). A “top-notch global cinema production team” will be announced “soon,” the statement said.
Sarkissian is best known for his development of the Rush Hour trilogy, featuring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. A fourth film has been announced but Chan has not committed as of yet.
Seven Stars Entertainment was co-founded by Wu and Yang Lan, a Chinese television personality and Wu’s wife.
Sun Seven Stars Media will also be involved in providing merchandising services, and will appoint a team of Titanic-related experts, research specialists, and explorers to engage in production planning for a dedicated online Channel.
James Cameron’s Titanic was China’s box office champion from its debut in 1997 until 2009, when it was overtaken by Cameron’s Avatar.
Interest in the story of the ill-fated cruise liner, the sinking of which claimed more than 1,500 lives in April 1912, remains high in China. A theme park with a Titanic replica is being built in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. However, film attempts to recreate the Cameron films magic have sunk. John Woo’s two-part shipwreck epic The Crossing, referred to by some as the “Chinese Titanic,” foundered at the Chinese box office, earning under U.S.$30 million in its first two weeks in theaters last year. In contrast, the 2012 3-D re-release of Titanic took in a stunning U.S.$67 million in its China debut.