Famed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's new film Back to 1942, starring American actors Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody, will debut on November 29, officials with Huayi Brothers Media Group, the film's investor, have said.
The epic is widely expected to raise the curtain for the upcoming prime pre-Lunar New Year film season in China.
Costing 210 million yuan ($33.6 million), the blockbuster depicts a tragic drought which claimed about three million lives in central China's Henan Province in 1942.
The period from late December to early February is usually the busiest time of the year for China's box office, holding the premieres of many domestic films.
But the season has been stretched to begin in late November over the past few years as more and more films are screened in the period to compete for their share of China's growing box office.
Box office sales totaled $1.28 billion in the first half of 2012, up 41.7 percent year on year, with imported movies taking in three-fifths of the revenues.
Feng's film, which also stars Chinese actors Zhang Guoli and Chen Daoming, is based on a novel written by Liu Zhenyun.
It will be challenged by blockbusters including director Lu Chuan's epic The Last Supper, and the biopic and action film The Grandmasters by director Wong Kar-wai.
The former is set to debut on November 29, while the latter will hit the screens on December 18, according to popular movie Website Douban.com.
Feng has been one of the most successful Chinese directors for commercial movies. His The Dream Factory in 1997 was the first film produced for the Lunar New Year film season. It took about 36 million yuan at cinemas.
(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2012) |