China seems to be on a trend of adapting a hit novel into both a drama and movie, but then does so in a way that doesn’t continue the trend of why the first adaptation was popular to begin with. After weeks of speculation on the casting of upcoming movie version of Grave Robbers Journal (Dao Mu Bi Ji and referred to as Dao Mu), which was recently made into the hit web drama The Lost Tomb, to no one’s surprise the powers that be went with two hot C-ent names for the movie leads rather than the two popular drama leads that already originated the roles for the screen. This is basically You Are My Sunshine casting redux.

The movie version of Dao Mu will star Luhan in the leading role of Wu Xie and Jing Bo Ran, coming off the biggest C-movie box office in years with Monster Hunt, as the second male lead of Zhang Qi Ling. The C-drama was a big hit this summer starring Li Yi Feng as Wu Xie and Yang Yang as Zhang Qi Ling, but since the movie version was announced there were murmurings that the production wanted bigger names for the big screen. Bummer for my Feng Feng and Yang Yang, and lucky for Luhan, who continues to conquer the Chinese entertainment industry, as well as Jing Bo Ran riding a lucky break after he was the last minute replacement in Monster Hunt for Kai Ko. Continue reading →