The popular online novel Yun Shen Ji (The Fall of Gods) will be adapted into online series, an online game and merchandise. It's one of the examples of the cooperation between internet companies and the film industry. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhejiang Huace Film & TV, one of the five partners, plans to adapt the novel into three TV series, two films and one smartphone game in the next five years. The aim is to establish the protagonist hero as the Chinese answer to Matt Damon's super spy Jason Bourne, says Xu Yile, general manager of Croton, a Shanghai subsidiary of the Hangzhou-based company.

Most of the novel's diehard fans are aged 18 or 19, data show.

"A young fan had donated 200,000 yuan ($30,000) to the author in 2011. It's an incredible figure even by today's standards," says Xu.

The two movies will be shot in the United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Korea and Africa, and recruit Hollywood special-effects artists to polish the action sequences, according to Xu.

To financers, Age of Legends is seemingly an example showing the power of fan-driven online content.

At a media conference on Aug 24 in Beijing, ChineseAll said that it had raised 2 billion yuan from five companies.

Despite having some 500 digital-content providers, such numbers are still big for the Chinese market.