Erudite

Principal photography for Season 1 was completed yesterday (8 Feb 2018) after 160 days of filming.

Exclusive news: Filming for Season 2 will begin in May 2018.

No, this is actually of the alternative history genre. It explore the possibility of what if the weak last Emperor of Han is secretly replaced by a double who happens to be a good friend of Sima Yi (the protagonist in Advisor's Alliance) - how would history be affected?

Fun fact: The original screenplay for both parts of The Advisor's Alliance and the adaptation of this drama are written by same person.

Thanks for spreading the word :)

Short costume teaser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-rnJ-hXiss

You can find the entry I created including synopsis here:
https://kisskh.at/27178-ever-night
No big name stars as leads, so at the moment it is mostly hyped by book fans who have high hopes that it will be one of the more faithful C-fantasy adaptation.

Barring surprises, this should be the best C-fantasy drama to be released in 2018. Any serious contenders are unlikely to finish their post-production until 2019.

There's rumors that this will be released on June 2018, in a 4 to 6 episodes per week schedule. It true then this might be a release even earlier than https://kisskh.at/22170-fights-break-sphere which story actually is chronologically earlier in the shared universe.

This short clip by the crew of Ever Night is composed of edited footage from first 10 days of filming (Sept 10, 2017):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Ab0Rba7RM (720p)

Sometime ago, I saw a road-map plan of Novoland International (the IP holder for TESoP) after it received a round of seed venture capital from 4 partners in 2016. It showed plans for a TESoP movie to be made after the TV drama (titled 'Battle of Tianqi City') It could be one way to get the the original cast back - as transition to a 2nd season or maybe concluding the story.
Of course, this is just a plan and sometimes situation changes everything...

This is China's first sincere attempt to adapt a contemporary written magic-based fantasy novel (discounting adaptations of classics like Journey to the West).

I added this drama as a new title to kisskh on Jan 23 2018, the 143th day of shooting for the crew.

What's my expectation at this point? I think at worse it should reach at least the level of https://kisskh.at/19556-the-legend-of-the-condor-heroes but without the burden of a remake.

I was encouraged by the response of 70 years old Adam Cheng who initially was reluctant to accept the role of Fuzi. They managed to convinced him to read a copy of the novel. Sometime after that, he said "Send me the screenplay!" Six months after his first refusal he ended up on a remote set in a mountain area.

Ever Night: Dawn in the Empire is the first season out of three in the series. It follow closely events of the first volume of the novel and parts of the second volume (Lake of the Chilling Winter).
Unlikely some multiple-part C-fantasy dramas that left viewers confused and hanging at end of part 1, this one should have a satisfying conclusion of a major story arc at end of season 1.

Contrast "cartoon cult" to terrorist groups in our real world.

Minister Xun's faction are the "not so" villains - but they made the wrong decisions for good (in their view) intentions with dire consequences.

The 1st arc villain is in some ways the anti-Mei Changsu, he obviously take the "know your enemy" maxim to heart, and develops a grudging respect for the heroes and the realization that comes from a dark soul that he has to win a "moral victory" against the goodness he saw in his enemy.

Playing the part of apologist here :p

The adversary (A) being the astute game theorist he is has setup a Cornelian dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelian_dilemma
which he knows is unwinnable to character x.

x knows the best response logically is using an utilitarian approach (btw the library would have Lang Ya would have text of Mozi or something similiar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohism )

A's mother intutively made the same choice when he was young.

A's plan is to scarred the survivor of the dilemma - he wins either way (bringing down x to his level or...)

However, A did not forseen there was actually a solution to this dilemma.

The interesting thing is the writer then introduce a twist - a 2nd Cornelian dilemma through fate, which A is totally unaware but forcing x to choose again, leading one of character to lament, "we are back to where we start!"

I would argue that NIF2 creators has setup this plot arc in a keen manner and not as uninspired as you made it out to be. A is shown to be cunning, astute in game theory and has a gambler's instinct but ultimately not prescient.

x was put into a final no-win situation through fate or "will of the gods" hence a greater tragedy.

The Tribes novel never it into any important book list in China.

Eagle Flag is a relatively straight forward story and the producers promised to shoot the book ending properly.

Ever Night could be very divisive...because of the nature of the plot.

x is the classical tragic character - a prevalent theme in NIF2, along with filiality and love of the family.
Great ancient Greek tragedies share much the same values and sentiments:
Antigone - "unnecessary death of family loving heroine".

Legend of Fu Yao which you have posted about in the past ;)

But Lights is probably thinking of Chronicles of Life or https://kisskh.at/18952-fighter-of-the-destiny :p

Personally I think Eagle Flag iwill do much better than Linmon Picture's https://kisskh.at/17440-to-be-a-better-man since this is by the same director and he has got a stronger team this time.

Oh, you are right :p but I can't see how it will end well with the Noble Aspirations TV drama after it changed the outcome of one of the lead character differently from the book.
---

Oscar nominated Yee Chung Man is the art director for Eagle Flag:
Mr Yee is the only Chinese who ever won in an award by the Costume Designers Guild (for period film).
Why is that significant? Well, competition is so tough that out of the three Lord of the Rings films only one (1) has managed to win in the same category.

Among Yee's competition the year he won include the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

One last thing to ponder:
For the category CDG Costume Design for a Fantasy Television Series, only one TV series has the honours so far.
Yes, everyone guess correctly - Games of Thrones.

Dare we even hope...
----

Ever Night: No listing here yet so I include just a few trivia:

While Nirvana in Fire was being broadcast live in late 2015 and all the rage, the Biannual Best Chinese Net Fiction Novel awards were held, and the 1st prize went to Ever Night, and NIF got 2nd, sharing the prize with two other works.
Huang Wei, the costume designer of Tribes and Empires is also doing the same for Ever Night.

Edit for errors: I wrote Yee Chung Man is the Art Director for Ever Night by mistake while in fact he is the Costume Director for Eagle Flag.

Interesting, I think TESoP has made a few too many missteps in production along the way, but I watched from it beginning to end without skipping. Despite it flaws, I think it had set a milestone for C-drama.
I think Eagle Flag will be a better series for Novoland partly because of the precedence set by TESoP.

Off-topic, I am even more excited about the upcoming Ever Night series.

My attention was also drawn to the beautiful handcrafted laminated pattern-steel Longquan swords used by the generals and princes in this show.

I am the person who originally provide the NEF budget below :)

The budget for first season (alone) of the Ever Night series is slightly less than the sum total for NEF, however Ever Night has been green-lighted for at least 3 seasons (it being the 1st high budget Chinese show to adopt a multi season format). So Ever Night could potentially be most expensive Chinese show.

It is likely that the 1st season of Ever Night would come out before Eagle Flag.