NZ to help film Chinese tale for release during Olympics

Taiwanese and New Zealand companies have set up a joint venture to produce a $NZ100 million English-language feature based on a Chinese myth.

The film will be released during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China Radio International (CRI) reported.

Lady White Snake has been written by Chinese musician Hou Dejian, owner of Taipei-based Equinox Film.

Auckland-based Digitimij, the film development and production arm of Australian visual effects company Photon VFX, will work on the film.

According to the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei, Lady White Snake is scheduled to go into production from October 2006.

Photon VFX head Dale Duguid, who is producing alongside Dejian, said it would be a dramatic martial arts action film with romance and classical Chinese imagery, and a lot of special effects.

Most of the budget is sourced from Taiwan and the sales and distribution rights are currently under negotiation, CRI reported.

Dejian is working with United States writer/director Patrick Read Johnson, who wrote the fantasy adventure film Dragonheart.

- NZPA