170 Famous Actors to Star in a New Movie
To celebrate the founding of People’s Republic of China, 韩三平(Hán Sānpíng) Han Sanping and 黄建新(Huáng Jiànxīn) Huang Jianxin produced a film 建国大业(jiànguó dàyè) The Foundation of a Republic, which was released just before Oct 1, 2009. The movie talks about a series of stories from 1945 up until 1949 when the PRC was founded. More than 170 famous actors were included in the cast of this film including Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi and so on. So in terms of the numbers of famous stars, the film makes a new 记录(jìlù) record. Apparently, many films stars refused any compensation for the movie. Because of the great support and financial 捐献(juānxiàn) donations made by some of the actors, the film just cost 30 million RMB to make, but racked up a total of more than 300 million gross RMB. The director 黄建新(Huáng Jiànxīn) Huang Jianxin 透露(tòulù) revealed that the film would have cost at least 400 million if the actors were paid at the market price. He commented:
“Wǒ dì yí yào xièxie Máo Zhŭxí, dì èr yào xièxie míngxīngmen.”
“我 第 一 要 谢谢 毛 主席，第 二 要 谢谢 明星们。”
“I first of all want to thank Chairman Mao and secondly thank the stars.”
1. 记录(jìlù) n/v. record
2. 捐献(juānxiàn) n. a fairy’s name
3. 透露(tòulù) v. reveal