The New Chronicles: The Journey Begins

The New Chronicles: The Journey Begins is a 1999 El Kadsreian kadsresatsu film written and directed by Sung GIm, produced by BTV Films and distributed in the United States & Canada by and internationally by. It was released on October 15, 1999. Despite receiving negative reviews from both critics and audiences, who criticized the character designs and plot, while its visual effects and soundtrack were praised, it spawned a TV spin-off series The New Chronicles, which aired from 2000 to 2002 in El Kadsre on Banushen Television and in the US on. It has also been considered a cult classic.

Plot
In the year 2005 in Capulco, El Kadsre, a meteor collides into the CPN Media Tower, harming several people and disrupting all CPN broadcasts in the process. The meteor is filled with Turectillium, a rare element from the planet Karrak, which has the ability to grant superhuman strength and eternal youth to the carrier of the element. The meteor is taken into custody at the hands of the UEKN's government and is placed in the basement of Fusa Forbidden City's headquarters in Fusa, Sentan. One week later, though, a thief, Katrina Mills (Janet Myeong), hired by Sentanese-El Kadsreian scientist, Hisato Hashimoto (Hideki Hamasaki), manages to steal the meteor's element and rushes back to Samuel Jones' (Arnold Minstrom) van, which drives back to Hisato's lab.

Production
In 1996, after leaving El TV Kadsre, Darren Cody moved to Banushen Media Corporation. He wanted to take Sung Gim's script for the unfinished Technic Heroes film B11: Bionicle: The Next Generation 2 and retooled the script and characters and created the concept for The New Chronicles, and pitched it to BTV Films.

October Films purchased the U.S. distribution rights for $20 million, after a contract battle with Fox Searchlight Pictures, Miramax and R.A. Releasing.

Filming occurred in the, and ,  metropolitan areas in the summer of 1998. Many scenes at Tyran University were filmed at 's. The interior shots of the Tyran University auditorium were filmed at in Dallas'  complex. The production also shot interior sequences at The Studios at Las Colinas in.

The scenes at the Sanbe Space Center are a combination of establishing shots at the NASA in Houston and shots with the actors at the  plant in. Due to scheduling issues, they could not close down the plant for filming, and thus, much of those in the background of these shots were Texas Instruments employees, some of which chose to dress up in spare costumes from the production crew after hearing about the shoot. The scenes at the Allways Mall were filmed in the and the. The McDonald's is on North Belt Line Road in Irving.

Additional filming took place at selected locations in the, including in  standing in for Karrak's lunar base (with interiors filmed in the ).

The film also employs computer-generated imagery and special effects created by Fuse Special Effects and the -based VFX house Lone Star VFX Productions.

Home media
The films was released by El TV Kadsre Home Entertainment in 2000 in the El Kadsreian Islands on VHS, TVD, Laserdisc, and on DVD and VHS by USA Home Entertainment the same year in the US and Canada.