According to Spinoff, popular novelist and comic book writer, Neil Gaiman will script an adaptation of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West for a trilogy 3D films.
The $300 million trilogy is being developed by prominent Chinese television producer Zhang Jizhong, and James Cameron has agreed to consult on the script and technology matters. Guillermo del Toro is being courted to direct.
Published in the 1590s, Journey to the West follows a Buddhist monk and his three protectors, the Monkey King, a pig spirit and a fish spirit, on a pilgrimage from China to India to retrieve the Buddha’s sacred scrolls.
“We have to do what Peter Jackson did with Lord of The Rings,” Gaiman tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We have to make it filmic, non-episodic. This story is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people.”
The story has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen, recently as Monkey: Journey to the West, an opera by Gorillaz collaborators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The 2010 fantasy-adventure The Forbidden Kingdom also also borrowed elements from the novel, including Jet Li’s Monkey King.
Gaiman is widely known for his comic book series The Sandman, and for his novels including American Gods,The Graveyard Book, Coraline and Stardust. He also wrote the BBC series Neverwhere, and co-wrote the screenplays for Beowulf and MirrorMask, as well as scripted an episode for the upcoming season of Doctor Who.