Chen denied he had switched citizenship while at a film awards ceremony in Beijing last weekend. Without addressing his nationality directly, Li was quoted by Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po newspaper as saying recently, “no matter where I go, my heart will always remain in the motherland.”
The Founding of a Republic was commissioned by the main film regulator and made by the powerful state-owned China Film Group, which is involved in most major productions in China and controls importing of foreign films. The movie will be released nationwide on Sept. 17 with 2,000 prints of the film, nearly one for every two of China’s 4,100 screens.
Film Group chairman Han Sanping (韓三平), who co-directed with Huang Jianxin (黃建新), personally asked some of the celebrities to take part.
“Everyone has to show their respect if Grandpa San asks,” said Woo’s regular producing partner, Terence Chang (張家振), referring to Han by his nickname.
Hence, many of the stars in the movie worked for free, helping keep the movie’s budget to a modest 60 million yuan to 70 million yuan, said China Film Group spokesman Weng Li (翁立).
But rumor has it that audiences will have to pay close attention to catch all of the appearances. The lead roles — like revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) — will be played by lesser known actors.
Chan plays an unnamed journalist, reportedly only delivering a few lines.
Crouching Tiger star Zhang Ziyi is an unidentified representative from the cultural sector. Woo’s character shows up in one of the trailers but was left out of the final cut, producer Chang said.
Still, agents and representatives of the stars said it’s enough to be seen.
“Every actor and every director will feel very honored if he or she could take part in this movie,” said Huang Bin (黃斌), the agent for director Chen.
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