Warlords features sizzling hot screen star Takeshi Kaneshiro and Hong Kong idol Andy Lau — best known for their starring roles in Flying Daggers — teamed up with martial arts superstar Jet Li and actress Xu Jinglei. 

Director Peter Chan, best known for low-budget love stories, took on the $40 million dollar epic because “This film is pure dramatic entertainment, but it’s the anti-war message that drew me in.” He eschews wires and special effects and goes for gritty realism.

40 Million Dollar Blockbuster

The Warlords is filmed on location in Southern China, on full-sized replicas of ancient fortresses, with hundreds of real-life Chinese soldiers playing Taiping warriors on a People’s Army firing range normally dedicated to tanks.

Kaneshiro, Lau and Li play farmers turned mercenaries, a story about brotherly betrayal during civil war. Working with a crew of 860 and over 1,000 extras, the cast alone promises a box-office success. The risk is in artistic approach, as Warlords breaks away from the formula of recent big-budget films from China by eliminating the visual stylism of state-of-the-art special effects and martial arts tricks.

Won’t Sell Until Cannes

Even with the impressive cast, Chan won’t sell until Cannes. “We’re not making the typical martial arts film, so we decided to hold off on presales until we can show at least 20 minutes of footage,” he explained. “We don’t want to mislead buyers.