|
'The King and I' to be made into Chinese musical
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-12 10:02
The Broadway and Hollywood classic "The King and I" is to be turned into a
big-budget Chinese-language stage musical, a Hong Kong production company said.
Music Nation said it would take its adaptation of the famed 1956 musical by
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II on tour around China, Hong Kong and
Taiwan.
The Broadway and
Hollywood classic "The King and I" is to be turned into a big-budget
Chinese-language stage musical with Hong Kong pop star and scree
heart-throb Andy Lau possibly playing the king.
[AFP] | "The project is still at a preliminary
stage," said a spokesman for the company headed by Richard Li, son of Hong Kong
tycoon Li Ka-shing.
Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily said the Mandarin-language show, costing more
than 100 million Hong Kong dollars (12.8 million US) to produce, would premier
in Hong Kong next year.
It said Hong Kong pop star and screen heart-throb Andy Lau had been
approached to play the king, the role originally played by Yul Brynner both on
Broadway and in the film, which also starred Deborah Kerr.
"The King and I", based on the book "Anna and the King of Siam" by Margaret
Landon, is about widowed English school teacher Anna Leonowens who travels to
Thailand to be the live-in governess of the King of Siam's children in 1862.
Leonowens and the King fall in love, and she later stays on to offer help and
advice to the new ruler and Prince of Siam following the death of the king.
The book claims to recount the experiences of the British governess, but
several films based on it have previously been banned in Thailand on grounds
that it distorted facts and insulted the king.
The last film remake was "Anna and the King", released in 1999 which starred
Jodie Foster and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star Chow
Yun-fat.
|
