Press release from Wieland Schulz-Keil, Cordula Paetzel and Marian Macgowan
Chinese author Qiu Xiaolong´s internationally successful series of detective novels built around Chief Inspector Chen will be produced as seven motion pictures, producers Wieland Schulz-Keil, Cordula Paetzel and Marian Macgowan announced earlier today. The pictures will be Chinese-Australian co-productions with Wieland Schulz-Keil (Neofilm, Berlin), Cordula Paetzel (Schmidt & Paetzel Fernsehfilme, Berlin) and Marian Macgowan (Macgowan Films, Sydney) serving as producers. They jointly acquired the rights in the seven novels forming the Inspector Chen series. Negotiations with a Chinese distribution and production house and with international sales agents are underway.
The series, written in English, is set in Shanghai and has been translated into over twenty languages. Reviewing the fourth book in the series, A Case of Two Cities, Publishers Weekly felt that Xiaolong "captures an honest detective's struggle to be true to his professional ideals." The same reviewer concluded: "Chen stands in a class with Martin Cruz Smith's Russian investigator, Arkady Renko, and P.D. James's Scotland Yard inspector, Adam Dalgliesh."
Qiu Xiaolong, the Anthony Award-winning creator of the Inspector Chen series, was born in Shanghai and now lives in St. Louis Missouri where he teaches Chinese literature at Washington University.
Wieland Schulz-Keil has been active as a producer for over 30 years, working with directors John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, John Schlesinger, Axel Corti and many others. In recent years he acquired considerable experience working in China with Chinese talent and crews. One of his numerous productions is Children of Huang Shi (2007/2008), directed by Roger Spottiswoode, which was shot entirely in China. Cordula Paetzel, Sinologist, is the producer of many award-winning TV-documentaries amongst them What the Chinese Read (2010) a film on Chinese contemporary literature starring Qiu Xiaolong.
Marian Macgowan is principal of Macgowan Films and an award-winning producer. Macgowan Films has an active development and production slate. Based in Sydney they focus on co-productions both with Europe, North America and more recently Asia.