In recent years, Dylan Sprouse has taken a back seat as the lesser popular brother as Cole took to the spotlight in the CW’s Riverdale. While Cole portrayed Jughead in the Archie Comic’s adaptation, Dylan has taken on a number of direct-to-video and independent films. And now, it seems he is headed toward Chinese drama in the 2021 adaptation of The Curse of Turandot based on the multi-part opera of the same name from 1926 (though the original story dates back all the way to the 12th century).
What makes this all the more interesting is that it will be shot entirely in Mandarin which Dylan Sprouse will speak exclusively in the film.
Proud to announce my participation in the huge Chinese fantasy romance movie, Turandot as Prince Calaf! Between losing 30lbs from combat training and speaking exclusively mandarin, this is a huge leap for me, read more here: https://t.co/pJ63IZ90My
— Dylan Sprouse (@dylansprouse) May 30, 2018
The story of Turandot involves a young and cold-hearted princess who vows to kill any royal suitor who attempts to take her hand in marriage but will accept a suitor if they can solve three riddles. Prince Calaf (Sprouse), a non-Asian, accepts this challenge and attempts to solve the riddles knowing that any false answer will result in his immediate execution. Surprisingly, the film actually looks quite interesting and dare I say good, at least from what we can see in the trailer below:
Written by Giamoco Puccini, the film adaptation has not made it clear just how closely it will adapt any previous iterations of the story but clearly, it demonstrates embracing the fantasy and martial arts elements that look quite pleasing to the eye. We also have it on good authority that Sprouse’s Mandarin is quite accurate and again, quite good. In fact, one user on Facebook with insight on the story had this to say in the comments on the trailer:
“Ok, to clear up this mess, Turandot is a Puccini opera about a Chinese princess courted by the prince of Tartary, Calaf, who is distinctly not Asian in all versions of the opera. Part of the point is that the prince and princess are from vastly different regions in the world. Tartary was predominantly made up of Russia and Siberia. Whether that means he should look whit idk, but the whole point of the play is that he is NOT a Chinese prince.“
The clarification regarding the unusual casting for this movie was necessary because Dylan might actually be a perfect fit for the role after all. However, we suspect that the more initiated might spin this into a reverse Ghost in the Shell situation which we didn’t want to happen.
Directed by Xiaolong Zheng, the film stars Gabrielle Guan, Dylan Sprouse, Jian Wen, Hu Jun, Jevon Wang, and Collin Chou. The film is set to release by the end of this year but no date has been given from what we can tell.
You can check out more on The Curse of Turandot over on My Drama List.
