Neil Gaiman to write script for 3D Journey to the West

Science fiction and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Coraline) has joined hands with mainland director Zhang Jizhong to adapt the classic Chinese Journey to the West to the big screen.

Zhang, known for his TV dramas based on wuxia (martial arts) novels, said he wants to make a 3D trilogy out of the 16th-century adventure story of a monk and his three disciples, including the widely loved Monkey King.

Zhang says he met more than 10 Hollywood scriptwriters before zeroing in on Gaiman, whose film bibliography includes MirrorMask and Beowulf.

"He writes beautiful fantasy stories and knows the book better than many Chinese," Zhang says.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, while shopping around in Hollywood for the project recently, Zhang met Avatar director James Cameron who, he says, has agreed to help figure out how best to convey the story.

In Zhang's grand plan, the films will be in English and will target the global market. He hopes to rope in an international crew and cast, including both Chinese and Western filmmakers, and is courting Mexican Guillermo del Toro to direct. He expects the first installment to rake in 1.2 billion yuan ($176 million) from the local market alone.

Zhang is aware of wide skepticism over his ambitions but insists they can be realized.

"Nobody could imagine that a Chinese film would gross 700 million yuan before Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly did," he says. "In two years, it is quite possible that a film can earn more than 1 billion yuan here."

Gaiman and Zhang have already visited Hunan and Yunnan provinces to explore possible locations. In the upcoming months, Gaiman will work on an outline attractive enough to help Zhang draw in investment for the big budget film that is expected to cost $300 million.

Gaiman says the film's script will stay close to the original, a classic that enjoys the same status in China as The Lord of the Rings does in the West.

"I will not make the monk a girl," he said jokingly, at a press conference on March 11 in Beijing. "I will be very respectful to the book. If I did something disrespectful, the 1.4 billion people of China would be after my blood," Gaiman says.

"I hope when Chinese audiences walk out of the theater, they will say it is something we bring to the world, rather than, well, that's fine, but not really Journey to the West."

The book has been represented many times in Chinese TV dramas and films. Zhang himself has also made a 70-episode TV series based on it, which will air in April.