New blockbuster to portray true story of fighting COVID-19

China.org.cn????|???? Updated: 2020-06-03 12:19

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Epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, speaks at a ceremony to greet and thank a returning medical team who went to aid Hubei province during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, April 22, 2020. [Photo/China.org.cn]

A top film executive recently revealed his company will produce a new blockbuster based on the true story of doctors who fought against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Film Group, said the new movie's working title is Chinese Doctors, and will be based on true events. The creative team has already started work, and carried out in-depth interviews with a Guangdong medical team, led by China's top epidemiologist Dr. Zhong Nanshan, who came to aid Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

According to him, the film will portray various major figures in the fight against COVID-19, rather than focusing on a sole individual. They plan to shoot the film this year and are now working on script.

Bona Film Group are experienced at portraying true events in movie blockbusters. Their previous triumphs include Operation Mekong, Operation Red Sea, The Bravest and The Captain, as well as an investment in Hollywood director Roland Emmerich's war epic Midway. Their latest effort is The Rescue based on the true story of a team of Chinese maritime rescuers. However, due to the pandemic, the Spring Festival release date was shelved and postponed.

China's film industry has been on hold for four months due to the pandemic and many film companies have suffered and even gone bankrupt. Cinemas are technically allowed to reopen for business with epidemic prevention and control measures, but few have reopened yet.

Yu's Bona Film Group has recently set up a new headquarters in Nansha, Guangzhou. He said at a press conference held in Guangzhou on May 27 that he wanted to help make the Great Bay Area the third biggest area for creating Chinese films, after Beijing and Shanghai.

There are other two film projects currently in development by Bona Film Group, including Imperial Envoy which will portray national hero Lin Zexu who stopped the illegal import of opium from the British in 1838, and Kashmir Princess, based on the 1955 attempted assassination of Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC).