As the most expensive feature film in China’s history, it’s almost appropriate that The Great Wall, Zhang Yimou’s eye-popping monster movie, gets a super-sized international trailer. It’s just shy of nine minutes in length and, unsurprisingly, crams in a staggering amount of new and fantastical footage.
Marking the English-language debut for Yimou, this exhaustive sizzle reel begins by focusing on Matt Damon’s adventurer, who wanders onto these lands in search of an elusive gunpowder. Flanked by Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal, he then stumbles upon The Great Wall, a sky-scrapping fortification built not to fend off northern invaders, but to safeguard China and its people from mythical beasts known as the Taotie. What follows is a closer look at the movie’s lavish action sequences, not to mention how each color-coded faction plays into the overarching narrative.
That’s a story that blends Eastern and Western traditions and cultures, and while The Great Wall hasn’t been without its criticisms – much of which have been levelled at the film’s marketing for featuring Matt Damon so prominently over the high-profile Chinese ensemble – there’s no question that Yimou’s upcoming tentpole is on the verge of becoming a must-see event film.
Expect The Great Wall to make its debut in China on December 16, before Zhang Yimou’s fantasy blockbuster storms US theaters on February 17, 2017. Also on board to fight against the Taotie are Jing Tian, Andy Lau, Zhang Hanyu, Eddie Peng, Lu Han and many more.
Starring global superstar Matt Damon and directed by one of the most breathtaking visual stylists of our time, Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), Legendary’s The Great Wall tells the story of an elite force making a valiant stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure. The first English-language production for Yimou is the largest film ever shot entirely in China. The Great Wall also stars Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe and Andy Lau.
