Film Adaptation
In August 2004, the Beijing Forbidden City Film Company (BFCFC) purchased the movie rights to the novel for one million RMB; the Beijing Youth Daily described the movie version as China's highest-budget film as of 2005, and noted that the same special effects team which worked on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy had been contracted to work on the special effects for Wolf Totem. The production team initially had plans to complete the film in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. However, BFCFC struggled to find a director to work on the project. BFCFC renewed its rights in 2009, after the English and French editions of Wolf Totem had been published, and eventually settled on French director Jean-Jacques Annaud. Annaud's personal history mirrors that of author Lü and his character Chen: as a young man, he also left his home city to serve his country in a rural area, in his case for military service in Africa. He also has experience filming large wild animals such as tigers and bears, making him well-suited for the project. The scriptwriter Lü Wei previously worked on such major domestic films as Farewell My Concubine, To Live, and the Mongolian-themed Tuya's Marriage.
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