L.O.R.D. Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (Movie)

It's unlikely to follow Ice Fantasy without catching wind of L.O.R.D. 爵迹, an upcoming CGI animated film starring an ensemble cast led by none other than the reigning queen of c-cinema, Fan Bing Bing (Empress of China). 

Both adaptations are the brainchild of Guo Jingming who authored the novels that have turned into classic fantasy literature. In an attempt to do justice to the story, Guo Jingming was heavily involved in the making of L.O.R.D. as writer and director.

Motion capture is a technique often seen in Hollywood, think Avatar, Gollum and the Hulk's man-cancelling suit as stated by Mark Ruffalo himself. L.O.R.D will be the first of its kind for the Chinese entertainment industry, generating much hype due to the magnitude of its ambition. 

However, it is undeniable that most of the buzz has to be from its extremely high-profile cast that include Fan Bing Bing, Kris Wu (EXO), Chen Xue Dong (Tiny Times), William Chan, Amber Kuo (Tiny Times), Lin Yun (The Mermaid), Kevin Yan Kuan, Roy Wang (TF Boys) as well as special appearances by Yang Mi and Aarif Rahman. Each and everyone of them will be acting via motion capture that it has become a test of wit to try and identify who is who.

L.O.R.D. is scheduled to hit theaters on Sept 30, 2016 in 3D.

Source: YXDown

All About Ice Fantasy: premieres Jul 24

Judging by the stills alone, it's hard to get anymore fantastical than Ice Fantasy 幻城, a Chinese xianxia telling the tale of a mythological era when the Ice and Fire tribes were embroiled in a long-standing war. 

It is adapted from a novel of the same name written by Guo Jingming 郭敬明 who was only 20 when the popular novel was published in 2003. 

The series stars Feng Shao Feng (Lan Ling Wang), Victoria Song, Ma Tianyu and Zhang Meng and the production seems to be going big on aesthetics by hiring Hollywood bigwigs such as Dan Hennah who won an Oscar for Lord of the Rings and I have to say that the sprawling sceneries look visually stunning, especially when endowed with a beautiful-looking cast to begin with.

The elven ears remind me of the Legend of the Nine Tails Fox if not a direct replica of LOTR. It is Feng Shao Feng's second attempt at producing and it has been an expensive affair with over 3 hundred million spent, 300 actors, 30,000 extras, thousands of costumes and mounds of manmade ice.

Even the likes of Korean actress Kim Hee Sun joins the cast as the Ice Queen but I'm most excited for Victoria Song having been a fan of her since f(x). I wonder if all the hype is enough for the series to garner attention in Korea as well or whether it will stay one-sided where Koreans cross over to c-dramas but not the other way around?

The series premieres Jul 2016 on LeTV and Hunan TV. Check out eng subs on Viki.

For synopsis, cast and other info, check out my 2016 Chinese historical drama recommendations. 

Source: 3Lian, People, Xinhua