French director Morelli explores demons

Production has begun on Pascal Morelli’s long-developed feature-length animation Le Prince et 108 démons, an adaptation of the Chinese classic Water Margin about a group of 108 outlaws who are befriended by a young prince.

The feature is a co-production between French Same Player, Chinese Fundamental, Belgian Scope Pictures and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions.

France 3 Cinema, Gebeka Films, TF1 Video and TF1 International are also partners on the film with a €9.2 million budget.

Morelli, whose previous films include the 2002 animation Corto Maltese, has co-written the adaptation with Jean Pêcheux.

He is due to shoot a number of live action martial arts scenes in China this November, which he will then convert into animation.

The film is due to be delivered in the summer of 2014.