The Beijing Film Studio, which has hosted many high-profile productions from China and abroad, has been bombarded with press and onlookers this week. More than 150 journalists have been camping out at the studios' gates, and 50 burly security guards have been hired to keep them at bay.
The reason for all the excitement is the start of production of mainland director Chen Kaige's new film, The Promise (Wu Ji), a big-budget fantasy epic that involves some of the hottest talent from around the region. Hong Kong's Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi and Nicholas Tse Ting-fung are heading the cast, along with Korean actor Jang Dong-kun and Japan's Hiroyuki Sanada. If the last two names sound unfamiliar, Jang is one of Korea's biggest stars and is currently appearing in the war movie Taegukgi, which was a massive hit in his home country last month.
Sanada is equally huge in Japan. He starred in the horror movie The Ring and its sequels, and recently played Ken Watanabe's sidekick in The Last Samurai. The Promise also stars up-and-coming mainland star Liu Ye, who won a Golden Horse for Stanley Kwan Kam-pang's Lan Yu and last year appeared in Carol Lai Miu-suet's The Floating Landscape.
The film also involves some top behind-the-camera talent, including cinematographer Peter Pau Tak-hai and art director Tim Yip Kam-tim - Oscar-winners for their work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The action choreographer is Dion Lam Tat-ho, whose credits include some of Hong Kong's biggest action movies, including Black Mask and The Storm Riders, and who recently finished work on Hollywood blockbuster Spider-Man II.
With such a strong line-up of pan-Asian talent, and funding from Asia and the US, the film is bound to draw comparisons to Zhang Yimou's Hero, which was a huge hit around the region at the beginning of last year. Indeed, following the success of that film, it seems that a growing number of mainland filmmakers now have the confidence to make blockbusters.
But The Promise is quite different to Hero in style and content. According to a source: 'It's a drama about love, freedom and destiny, set in an imaginary historical world. It has lots of action scenes, but it's not exactly a martial arts movie.'