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Arnold Schwarzenegger to Star in Blockbuster Chinese Film About a Local Tourist Site

Actor wants tourists saying "I'll be back"... to China

Move over, Pirates of the Caribbean: China’s nascent film industry wants to turn a tourist attraction into a blockbuster movie with the help of a big name Hollywood star.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to take on the leading role in a $200 million Chinese blockbuster about a long-lost Chinese civilization, recently rediscovered in the 80s.

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Tentatively titled The Guest of Sanxingdui, the project is expected to start filming next year and has a 2019 release date. In addition to producing the film, Schwarzenegger will as serve as an overseas spokesperson for Sanxingdui, which also happens to be a tourist site in Sichuan containing the ruins to the remnant of the Shu Kingdom.

Film investment company Beijing Ajimo describes the film as “a 3D production featuring Hollywood technology and oriental culture.”

Schwarzenegger was seen at the Sanxingdui museum on October 24 where he viewed many of its Bronze Age relics.

Even though the former governor and 80s action star doesn’t have the draw he once had, Schwarzenegger’s Terminator Genisys was well received by Chinese audiences. The latest Terminator offering is also one of the top 50 highest grossing movies in China.

Schwarzenegger is the latest of a long line of Hollywood stars that have been courted to take part in Chinese films. Matt Damon is set to take part in Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall next year, while Christian Bale was cast in a previous Zhang film about the Nanjing Massacre, The Flowers of War.

Last year’s Dragon Blade featured John Cusack and Adrien Brody as dueling English-speaking Roman generals, while another Jackie Chan film The Myth was a historical mash-up that featured a movie star from India, Mallika Sherawat.

Meanwhile, Brandon Routh appeared as a Chinese chef with deadly fighting skills in Lost in the Pacific while Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai cast Norah Jones as his lead actor in his only English-speaking film, My Blueberry Nights.

But audiences won’t have to wait long to see Schwarzenegger in a Chinese film. The Terminator wrapped shooting a scene with Jackie Chan in the upcoming Chinese Travelogue (shown below).

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Charles Liu

The Nanfang's Senior Editor