BBC – Olympics – Journey To The East (Gorillaz)
Here’s a cool new commercial to promote the 2008 Beijing Olympics coverage on the BBC. It features music and animation from Damon Albarn‘s adaption of the ancient Chinese legend, “Journey to the West.” Working with Jamie Hewlett in their first major production together since Gorillaz, the pair teamed up with famous Chinese opera director Chen Shi-zheng for a version of the story they entitled, “Monkey: Journey to the West.” Their original adaption premiered at the 2007 Manchester International Festival.
Famous for being the creative frontman for musical groups such as Blur, The Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Damon Albarn makes for an interesting Beijing Olympics tie-in.
The agency responsible for this spot was RKCR/Y&R (with creative credits going to Paul Angus and Ted Heath). Jamie Hewlett directed the piece and it featured Cara Speller and Deborah Stewart as producers. The production companies used were Passion Pictures, Red Bee Media and Zombie Flesh Eaters. As mentioned earlier, this was an original composition from Damon Albarn.
An interesting piece of trivia about Monkey: Journey To The West – they spent two years holding casting sessions and workshops before they found the right crew who could fill the various roles.
