BBC partners with China on Life on Mars project

BBC Studios and Beijing-based Phoenix Entertainment Group will coproduce a Mandarin version of the popular British science-fiction television series Life on Mars, the two production houses announced on Monday.

It will be the first time the BBC has joined forces with the Chinese studio. David Weiland, executive vice-president of BBC Studios in Asia, indicated that further Chinese remakes of British television dramas may be on the horizon.

"We have a huge range of high-quality scripted titles, from Doctor Foster and Luther, to Thirteen and In The Club, shows that would captivate Chinese audiences", he said.

The partnership was announced at the BBC Studios annual trade fair, which this year attracted its biggest-ever Chinese delegation, according to BBC Studios president of global markets, Paul Dempsey.

Life on Mars follows a present-day police officer who mysteriously travels back in time to 1970s Manchester following a traffic accident. The audience follows the protagonist as he attempts to ascertain if he is dead, dreaming while in a coma, or has time-traveled.

The Mandarin version will be based in 1990s Beijing, a time of economic growth and prosperity in China, when the country became increasingly open to the rest of the world culturally.

The Chinese version will explore the conflict and challenges in this "remarkable era of change", according to the BBC. Preproduction on the series will start this year with Phoenix producing 24 episodes.

The show, which won both Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, ran for two seasons in 2006 and 2007, when it regularly received the highest viewership in its time slot with an average of 6.8 million viewers. BBC Studios has previously licensed the format to producers in Russia, Spain, the Czech Republic, and South Korea.

Life on Mars will be Phoenix's second police drama, following on from the huge success of Day and Night, a crime drama that has amassed more than 24 billion views on streaming service Youku.

"Life on Mars drew our interest because of its originality and superb storytelling," said Phoenix general manager Bihai Wu.

"BBC Studios offers a great range of dramas that match our ambitions to produce captivating, first-class dramas for the fast-growing Chinese subscription video-on-demand market and their discerning audiences."

The British and Chinese governments signed a television coproduction agreement in 2016 to facilitate linkups between studios in both countries.

A flurry of coproduced movies and TV series have followed, including the Jackie Chan action flick The Foreigner, romantic comedy Special Couple, which stars British actor Rupert Graves, and Watch the Skies, a science-fiction animation featuring the voices of British screen stars Gemma Arterton, Asa Butterfield and Sean Bean.

Production house Endemol Shine China is collaborating with both British film and TV production company Blue & White & Red Pictures and Chinese intellectual property specialist Cloudwood on a Mandarin version of the hit British crime drama Broadchurch. And Chinese internet company Tencent has coproduced the natural history series Dynasties with BBC Studios.