In December, filmmaker Zhang Yimou will unveil the 600 million yuan (HK$717 million) epic Nanjing Heroes. Set during the Nanking Massacre, the film, which is partly in English and stars Christian Bale, is being produced by mainland firm Beijing New Picture Film.
The fact that Chinese money is now attracting Hollywood talent is an indicator of how far the mainland film industry - backed by what has become one of the top 10 box-office territories in the world - has come.
In 2000, a mere 83 official movies were made on the mainland; a decade later that figure was 526. Furthermore, mainland players are dreaming big, and of markets far larger than that offered by the 1.3 billion people who live within China's borders.
When long-running Hollywood operation Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filed for bankruptcy in November, the market was flooded with rumours about which mainland studio would buy it out. Although MGM has emerged from bankruptcy, there have been concrete Chinese incursions into the United States film world.
At the end of last year, Bona Film Group became the first Chinese film company to list on America's Nasdaq stock market. According to The Beijing News, Bona Film's chairman, Yu Dong, vowed to turn his company into China's Paramount or Universal Studios, setting up a production company in Los Angeles to 'plant the red flag in Beverly Hills'.
Mason Xu, Bona Film's chief financial officer, says collaborations with foreign studios, primarily those in Hollywood, would fall into two main categories: distribution and joint production.
'Hollywood has excellent production crews and creative talent, and we would like to bring these talents together with the powerful China market,' he says.