Hollywood production outfit U2K is planning to remake "Hot Blood Dance Crew." The popular reality dance competition series, which airs in China's most popular video streaming service iQIYI, will soon get an English treatment for English-speaking countries, including India.
Michael and David Uslan, U2K's father and son producing team, have managed to get the format rights to remake the dance series from iQIYI, according to Variety. The producers will also team up with Renegade 83 in developing more unscripted programs from China, South Korea, and India.
David Uslan also told Variety that they have been scouring the Asian scene for four years for more diverse programs. The producer said that while the formats in Europe, South America, and Israel have dried up, the Asian market is just getting bigger and bigger. The themes of its shows also appeal to a wider audience on a global scale.
Details to the "Hot Blood Dance Crew" English version have yet to be ironed out. But viewers outside of China, particularly in North and South America, may get to watch the original Chinese version via the Rakuten Viki streaming service, according to the press release.
Rakuten Viki a video streaming platform with a vast Asian content library for the American region. iQIYI, on the other hand, is the leading video streaming platform in China with over three billion subscribers. Analysts say that this is the reason why Western streaming giant Netflix cannot penetrate the Chinese market.
Meanwhile, "Hot Blood Dance Crew" is described as a show that may be similar to "The Voice" and "Lip Sync Battle." The competition, however, features an AI component that iQIYI developed. It is meant to predict what might click with the audience. iQIYI also used the same algorithm-based AI for its controversial but widely popular "Rap of China" reality competition show.
The dance contest also featured popular Korean and Chinese celebrities performing street or hip-hop moves when it debuted in March 2018. Stars Lu Han, William Cha, Jackson Wang, and Victoria Song were the team leaders who selected who among the 191 competitors would become part of their dance crew, Soompi reported.
The hip-hop scene has been steadily growing in China in recent years. Incidentally, it was in the United States where the hip-hop culture started. Thus, in making the show available outside China, iQIYI believes that "Hot Blood Dance Crew" will also receive a wide following among Americans as it did in its home country.
