Heyi Pictures, the film arm of Chinese online video giant Youku Tudou, has announced that it will co-produce a slate of six movie projects in 2015.
Most of the projects are genre films based on proven properties that have been distributed across Youku Tudou’s online platforms.
The projects include a feature adaptation of Gardenia Blossom, a song performed by TV show host and actor Jiong He that captured the spirit of young Chinese students in 2004, and a feature-length version of Youku Tudou’s web comedy show Surprise.
The slate also includes Let’s Get Married, based on a top-rating Chinese romance TV series; How Much Love Can Be Played, based on a popular stage play about a millennial who evolves through three romantic relationships; and a remake of Thai hit A Teacher’s Diary.
Heyi Pictures is also co-producing a film based on top-selling comic book You’ve Got To Have A Dream, What If It Comes True? The comic book has a huge Weibo following and the title was used by Alibaba CEO Jack Ma as the title for the company’s IPO speech.
Launching last August, Heyi Pictures has so far co-produced 11 films including box office hits The Continent, Fleet Of Time and The Taking Of Tiger Mountain.
“I see 2015 as the year of genre films. We are capitalising on this opportunity by bringing successful Intellectual Properties (IP) from the online and offline worlds to the silver screen, transforming them into genre films that suit their original stories,” said Heyi Pictures CEO Allen Zhu.