(Variety) Upscale feature documentary “Colours of China” will begin shooting this year with Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Mike Single (“The Amazing Race,” “Clash of the Continents”) as director.
With a budget of 3 million euros ($3.3 million), “Colours” has been set up as a China-Germany-New Zealand co-production involving Germany’s Gebrueder Beetz, the Chinese Intercontinental Communications Center (CICC), and New Zealand’s Making Movies.
It will be packaged as a feature film for theatrical release and as a five-part spinoff TV series. The film is financed with investment by CICC and German Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, while the series is a co-production with ZDF, in association with Arte.
The project was announced at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday at a China-Europe co-production meeting organized by the Bridging the Dragon initiative.
“In China, five colors resonate through every layer of traditional and contemporary life, representing emotional, physical, spiritual and directional forces alongside the five elements. Using these profoundly influential colors as our guide and thematic motif, we explore the layered world of color within culture, characters, landscapes, moods, seasons and regions to present a celebration of the land, the people and ultimately the Chinese soul,” said Christian Beetz, CEO of Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion.
Making Movies and Gebrueder Beetz have previously co-produced factual series and high-end, effects-heavy drama-documentaries. Their “Modern Dinosaurs” is now in post-production. Scripted drama “War Stories,” based on events leading up to the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., is in pre-production.
CICC is one of the Chinese companies with the greatest experience in international co-production. It has co-produced series Arte, ZDF, NBC, PBS, Discovery and National Geographic, among others.
“‘Colours’ will be a symphonic visual narrative juxtaposing ancient and contemporary China while contrasting the natural world with astonishing built environments,” said James Heyward, CEO of Making Movies.
Source: Variety by Patrick Frater