Kris, or better known as Wu Yi Fan, may have already left EXO but his stardom-quality talent hasn’t quite faded. Despite leaving EXO with an unsettled lawsuit, the popularity he has gained from debuting as a EXO member continues to follow him everywhere he goes.
The former EXO member has been in constant limelight ever since he left the group and his career an actor has been magnified through the media. Due to Wu Yi Fan’s popularity and influence, he has become a new rising star in China and attracted close attention from many people, including the people from Madame Tussauds.
As such, it has recently been decided that Wu Yi Fan will be honoured with a wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Shanghai.
Wu Yi Fan became the first celebrity born in the 90s to be honoured with a wax figure at Madame Tussauds Shanghai. According to various Chinese media outlets, the museum will only create 5 celebrities’ wax figures every year as each wax figure requires 20 professional artists to complete. The wax figure costs around 1.5 million RMB. In fact, it will take 3 – 5 months to complete a wax figure before it’s shipped to China.
In Wu Yi Fan’s case, he was chosen to be honoured with a wax figure due to his outstanding performance in various fields and his influence in China. He became the latest celebrity to be “installed”at Madame Tussauds alongside other iconic figures including “Sherlock” actor Benedict Cumberbatch, Steve Jobs, Armin van Buuren, and Anne Frank. The production team from London even made a trip down to Shanghai to get his body measurements for his wax sculpture. They also took hundred of pictures of Wu Yi Fan and measured almost every single part of his body to ensure that his wax figure mimics his actual appearance and manner at the museum.
The pottery figure will take about 6 – 8 weeks to be completed in the headquarters in London, England while the further refinement of the wax statue will take about 8 – 12 weeks for the sculptors to ensure that the hair colour, face, eyes, and hair are ready for exhibition. It will be relocated to Shanghai by mid-2015 with a shipping fee that costs 100 thousand RMB.
Check out some of the photos that were taken while Kris was getting his measurements done:
It certainly came as no surprise to us that the singer-turned actor will be honoured with the wax statue as his popularity is unstoppable in China. Just several months after he left EXO, he released a new OST titled “Time Boils The Rain” for a Chinese film “Tiny Time 3” and became the lead role in Xu Jinglei’s new film “Somewhere Only We Know”. He also released a self-penned song for Xu Jing Lei’s film and the song was downloaded by over 10 million people in 57 minutes.
Wu Yi Fan will be seen next in Gun Hu’s new film “Lao Pao”.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Wu Yi Fan and SM Entertainment will enter the second round of court-referred mediation over his contract. This follows after Kris’ absence at the Seoul Central District Court during the first round of court-referred mediation earlier on 8th July. Only the legal representatives of both parties were present during the mediation but both parties did not manage to reach a settlement after the discussion about the differences in their dispute.
Both parties will meet again on 5th Dec at 10:20am at the Seoul Central District Court. It was also recently reported that another former EXO member Luhan will enter court-referred mediation with SM Entertainment after filing a lawsuit against the agency for an invalid contract.
What do you think of Wu Yi Fan’s wax sculpture at Madame Tussauds in China though? Are you excited to see it? Do you think he will be able to resolve the contract issue with SM Entertainment before the wax sculpture is completed? Share your thoughts in the comments box below!
