Banijay, int’l nets adapt Farewell Shanghai

MIPCOM: Producers and broadcasters from China, France, Germany and Australia have linked up to produce an adaptation of Angel Wagenstein’s novel Farewell Shanghai.

Farewell Shanghai by Angel Wagenstein

The show, which recounts the fates of various European Jews who fled to Shanghai during the Second World War, has been developed by writer and director Radu Mihaileanu (The Concert) and will be shot in China in English.

China’s K’ien Productions, Banijay Studios France, Breakout Films and France Televisions will coproduce along with Chinese duo Shanghai Media Group Pictures and Holy Mountain Films, Australia’s AMPCO Studios and Germany’s NDF.

An extended Chinese version of the series is also planned for the local market.

Wendy Xioalan Zhan, CEO of Holy Mountain Pictures, said the series will also “show the friendship between Chinese people and Jewish people, the resistance to oppression and the spirit of offering timely help to each other.”

David Kodsi and Julien Rouch, from K’ien Productions, described the show as “an intense, fabulous and romantic drama series which will take viewers from the carefree bohemia of late 1930s Paris to the charm of the Orient and expose the intrigues and excesses of the French ex-patriots in Shanghai.”

Banijay has been increasing its drama interests over recent months, launching a UK arm of Wallander prodco Yellow Bird Productions and linking up with UK producer Jolyon Symonds (Thorne, Complicit) on his new prodco venture.