EXCLUSIVE: Tana, the 3D animated feature co-produced by Warner Bros China, which premiered in competition at Annecy in June, has been picked up for international sales by Beijing-based Blossoms Entertainment, one of the few mainland China companies attending at AFM.
The film is co-produced with local animation studio Anywhere Door Film. Co-directors are Zhao Ji, the Chinese animation director behind White Snake, New Gods: Nezha Reborn and New Gods, andYang Jian, with editor-turned-director Zhu Ke’er.
The former is one of the most commercially proven Chinese animation directors. His 2019 feature White Snake, also co-produced with Warner Bros., earned $68m (RMB455m) in mainland China and is widely regarded as a pioneer that sparked the boom in homegrown animation. It is followed by 2021’s New Gods: Nezha Reborn ($68.05m/RMB456m) and 2022’s New Gods: Yang Jian ($82.8m/RMB555m).
Zhu is an editor and emerging director, offering a new female directorial voice in Chinese animation. She steps into the co-director’s chair after building her craft in the cutting room on White Snake and both New Gods titles.
Tana is about a young musician starting out in Shanghai. When her estranged father becomes ill, she is summoned home to the Mongolian grasslands and, with the help of a mischievous music spirit, unravels the forgotten art of Mongolian throat-singing and the love song that once bound her parents together.
“Tana sees Zhao working in a more contemporary register, trading mythological spectacle for an intimate story about music, memory and inherited grief,” said Vicky Ding, general manager of Blossoms Entertainment. “The Annecy bow drew sustained applause and left audiences visibly moved, with international reviewers praising its emotional precision and contemporary sensibility.”
Warner Bros will release the film in mainland China in 2027.
Blossom Entertainment’s AFM slate also includes the South Korean remake of The Intern (its first title from the country), Chen Sicheng’s National Day box office hit Traces Of Justice and Cao Dun’s historical action epic Dunhuang Warriors.
No comments yet