Mo Yan OK's first film in a decade

Producer Yu Ren has purchased film rights to Nobel laureate Mo Yan's novella "Treasure Map," the producer announced Tuesday in the Beijing News.

"Treasure Map"is the first of Mo's works to be turned into a film since Mo won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012.

In his announcement yesterday, Yu told the Beijing News that he plans to invest 100 million yuan (US$16.29 million) in "Treasure Map." The film will employ heavy visual effects, including 3-D, to capture what the Nobel committee called Mo's "hallucinatory realism."

Yu said he is in talks with a Hollywood special effects company and a number of top-tier Chinese actors. He plans to begin shooting by the end of the year.

"Red Sorghum" was the first of Mo's novels to be adapted for a film by Zhang Yimou. That film, released in 1987, won the Golden Bear at the 1988 Berlin International Film Festival. "Treasure Map" is the first of Mo's works to be adapted for a movie since "Nuan," a 2003 release directed by Huo Jianqi.

Mo Yan also recently granted Shandong Satellite TV the rights to a TV series adaptation of his classic novel "Red Sorghum."