Author Han Dong (left) will make his directorial debut among projects launched by Jia Zhangke (right).(Photo provided to China Daily)
Another writer has chosen to step into the booming film market. This time, it is Han Dong, a 55-year-old poet and novelist based in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.
He recently announced in Beijing that shooting of his directorial debut will begin next week.
As a newcomer to the industry, he is lucky to have Jia Zhangke, an art-house film veteran best known for the award-winning Still Life, backing him as executive producer.
The screenplay for the upcoming film Zai Matou (On the Pier) is adapted from Han's 1998 novella of the same name, which depicts poets' disputes with hooligans with a touch of black humor.
"It was not only me. Others, too, wanted to turn the novella into a movie after they read it," says Jia.
"I even found a German producer who was prepared to fund the film. But he went bankrupt before the shooting began."
But Han says: "I had three choices: To maintain my fame as a poet, to retire, or to try something new.
"I preferred the third option. A person today can experience different things within a lifetime.
"I am walking on thin ice. But I have confidence."
Han first gained a reputation as a pioneer in the 1980s' poetry movement with his exploration of poetry theory. Then, he advocated the importance of being colloquial in poetry. After 2000, he switched his focus to novels.
Though Han's only previous link with cinema was being a guest star in films, including Jia's A Touch of Sin in 2013, Jia does not consider his lack of experience as an impediment.
Jia says: "Han is good at capturing trivial moments in daily life with a poetic touch.
"His unrealistic portrayals in his novellas are unique among Chinese authors, and the style is really good for film adaptation."
But Han's foray into directing has not been smooth.
The film was to be shot in Huangshi, Hubei province, because he wanted a terrace on the bank of the Yangtze River as his location, but the terrace was recently inundated by floodwaters.
As for how Jia came to be associated with the film, he says that in 2010 he launched his Wings Project to support promising new directors.
Originally, it had seven filmmakers from China and overseas. Han is the eighth one.
Meanwhile, the 2013 nostalgic art-house film Memories Look at Me, directed by Song Fang as part of Jia's project, was the lowest-grossing film among all publicly screened films on the Chinese mainland that year.
This was largely due to limited screening options and the absence of promotion.
The movie earned only 2,000 yuan ($302) at the box office.
But despite this poor showing by that film, Jia's project still has investors.
Yang Lei, the vice-president of Alibaba Pictures, affiliated to internet colossus Alibaba Group, which is a co-investor in Han's film, says: "In a film market filled with people thinking only of how to make money, such 'author films' give us another direction to follow.
"For these films, market performance is not the priority.
"We want to give enough space to these filmmakers to express themselves as another voice in Chinese cinema."
Han's film is scheduled to be released next year.
