The budget is roughly equal to the budget of John Woo's Red Cliff, and approaches the total box office take of Aftershock, now China's most successful domestically-produced film.
Zhang's film will pull in the Hollywood effects team behind Saving Private Ryan and The Dark Night. Zhang and his longtime producer Zhang Weiping (no relation) of the New Picture Film Company announced Bale's casting and the hiring of Joss Williams and Martin Asbury's Dark Side FX to a roomful of hundreds of Chinese reporters.
The Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese citizens in what was then the nation's capital in 1937, has been the subject of several recent Chinese and co-produced films, each of which has included the character of John Rabe, a German businessman who helped save hundreds of Chinese refugees.
Bale will not play Rabe but instead play an American priest called John who helps a great number of Chinese escape certain death.
The script was written by Yan and Liu Heng, who wrote the novel upon which director Zhang's early hit Ju Dou was based.
"I met Christian in America and was impressed with his serious book research for the role," director Zhang said after playing a five-minute video mash up of clips from Bales Hollywood films, few of which have ever played theatrically in China.
The film will be shot about 40% in English and the rest in Mandarin Chinese, sources close to the project told The Hollywood Reporter. Zhang made no other cast or crew announcements.
There are no foreign investors, Zhang said, noting that it was too early to confirm what company might sell the films international rights.
