Monster Hunt, the Chinese movie which last year claimed China’s all-time box office record, is set to get a North American release later this month, reports Variety.
The film grossed over $390 million after a release in July, marginally exceeding the unprecedented success of Fast & Furious 7.
New York-based FilmRise has teamed with Asian specialty distributor Asia Releasing to handle the outing of the 3D picture on January 22, 2016 in all major North American markets.
The film is a hybrid of live action and CGI, written and directed by Raman Hui, one of the key creators of the Shrek franchise(!) and made on a budget of some $50 million.
“The cute baby monster Huba is the child of a human man and a monster queen, threatened by both monster-hating humans and monsters attempting to capture the new-born in an ancient world based on medieval China.“
Its human cast included Hong Kong and Chinese actors including Bai Baihe, Jiang Wu, Eric Tsang, Elaine Jin, Tang Wei and Sandra Ng.
FilmRise and Asia Releasing say they are targeting both the Asian-American and Western audiences in North America by releasing both the original Chinese version with English subtitles and also a new English dubbed version.
“We have carefully edited the English language version to be the equivalent of a PG rating, and we believe North American kids and their parents will embrace the film in the same way as Chinese audiences have,” said Danny Fisher, CEO of FilmRise.
“Chinese audiences in North America will for the first time be able to see this film on the big screen in 3D in its original language,” said Milt Barlow founder and CEO of Asia Releasing.