13 Mar – A newly-released image (pictured above) of the upcoming Wang Leehom-starrer, "Legend of the Ancient Sword", reveals the grand scale of the Chinese production. "This image is a wide shot of one of the biggest scenes, the auction house," according to Ben Zhang, Alibaba Pictures' executive producer of the movie, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. "It took us a few months to build this set - it was massive." The movie is an adaptation of the hit Chinese role-playing game (RPG) "Gu Jian Qi Tan", which features heavy influences from wuxia. It bears a touch of Hollywood as director Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2") is responsible of helming the project. News of his involvement in the Alibaba Pictures movie was first announced last year and he stated that he aimed to "integrate this Chinese property with Hollywood story-telling and visual effects." Harlin is no stranger to Chinese productions as he previously directed "Skiptrace", the 2016 Hong Kong-Chinese-American action movie starring Jackie Chan.
The movie adaptation of "Legend of the Ancient Sword" stars Wang Leehom in the lead role as Yue Wuyi, who is a young student of a lost martial arts form – involving both mechanics and magical power – called "Yanjia". Also part of the cast are Chinese singer-actress Victoria Song, who is the leader of K-Pop girl group f(x), as Wen Renyu, Taiwanese-born Canadian actor Godfrey Gao as Xia Yize and Hong Kong actress Karena Ng as Ah Yuan. Yue meets the three while on his journey to find Yanjia's greatest master and together they discover the schemes and conspiracies of Chen Ye, the grand priest of Liu Yue City. They must assemble the Sword of Enlightenment in order to defeat Chen Ye and save the world. The filming for the movie began in October last year and was completed on the 25th of last month. It is expected to be released in cinemas in early 2018.