WORLD War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” directed by Peter Jackson will hit Chinese theaters Nov. 11 through the National Arthouse Alliance. The 2018 documentary puts together interviews with WWI veterans and more than 100-year-old archival footage from the BBC and Imperial War Museum, restored via colorization and other production techniques to make it appear much more real to modern viewers. The film premiered at the London Film Festival and was more broadly released by Warner Brothers earlier in February. It was nominated for a Best Documentary BAFTA Award, but was deemed ineligible for submission to the Oscar race for best documentary because it missed a filing deadline. Jackson is a big name in China, where all of his “Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” movies have seen theatrical releases, as well as his 2005 film “King Kong.” The most successful of the bunch at the box office was “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” (2015) which grossed US$122 million in China at the time. In January, “Mortal Engines” — a post-apocalyptic adventure story directed by Christian Rivers but co-written and produced by Jackson — made about US$7.5 million in China. (SD-Agencies) |