Lu Chuan. Photo: VCG.
Chinese director Lu Chuan will be working with Hollywood to produce a sci-fi film about a competition among mechanic dragons in a steel town.
Set in the future, the film, “The Steel Town: a War of Dragons,” according to Chinese movie portal Mtime, which had the story, will combine live action with lots of computer graphics—with Hollywood teams heading up the CGI effort.
While Lu Chuan will produce, American director and editor Kevin Greutert, best known for his work on the Saw film series and “Titanic,” is slated to direct.
The news of “The Steel Town” was first revealed last month on the Wanda Film’s Night. As per an earlier report, production company Wanda Media announced it would put out 27 films, with “The Steel Town” as the top priority of the films on the list.
The company just released four posters for the film, and is rolling out an open audition for the leading roles.
This isn’t the first Sino-US co-production for Chuan. Known for darker films portraying China’s social and historical issues, such as “Mountain Patrol” and “City of Life and Death,” Chuan worked with Disney on “Born in China,” a nature documentary film released in 2016 that explored China’s fascinating wild life. Though produced on a modest $10-million budget, the highly-rated documentary grossed over RMB65 million (US$9.6 million) in China and $11 million in the U.S.
In recent years, there has been a lot of buzz around Sino-US co-productions, but thus far, despite all the hubbub, the fruits of the productions have yet to be very successful.
The most notable failure has been “The Great Wall,” which was released at the end of last year and was also backed by Wanda Group. The $150-million Zhang Yimou-directed film, which starred Matt Damon in the lead, reportedly lost $75 million. Hopefully, this one will meet a better fate.
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