Guo Fan (Chinese: 郭帆; pinyin: Guō Fān; born 15 September 1980), credited as Frant Gwo in Latin script, is a Chinese filmmaker. Gwo debuted as a director in 2011 with the film Lee's Adventure, and then directed the box-office hit My Old Classmate in 2014. In 2019, he directed China's first big-budget science fiction film, The Wandering Earth, which became one of the highest-grossing Chinese films of all time, garnering national acclaim. Its sequel, The Wandering Earth 2, was first released in China globally on 22 January 2023.
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Early life
Frant Gwo was born Guo Fan on 15 December 1980 in Jining, Shandong, China. During his early childhood, he developed an interest in painting, and in 1983, he studied at the Jining Municipal Bureau of Expression. In 1987, Guo enrolled at the Experimental Primary School in Jining, Shandong. Four years later, in 1991, he won the championship in the National Children's Calligraphy and Painting Competition.
Gwo went on to study at Jining No. 13 Middle School in 1993 and Jining No. 1 High School in 1995 before entering Hainan University in 1998 to study law. Beginning in 2000, Gwo spent much of his time creating manhua comics and graphic design. Instead of pursuing a legal career after graduation, he began working for the Asian Music Center program of China Travel Television in 2002 as a program packaging supervisor in Hainan. He later worked for Republic Culture Media Ltd. in Beijing.
After seeing James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day in theatres in the 1990s, Gwo was inspired to pursue a career as a sci-fi movie director. In 2009, he entered Beijing Film Academy to study film management.
