Re-teaming with Darclight, the company behind her most recent movie Zhongkui: Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal, Bingbing Li will next head for The Nest. She's producing and will star in the arachnophobic sci-fi thriller{
The plot involves a team of scientists who, in order to get to the "discovery of the century", must negotiate a labyrinth of carnivorous spiders. There's always bloody something, isn't there?
It's a Chinese-Australian co-production: the fourth to come about through an arrangement between Screen Australia and the China Film Co-Production Corporation since 2006. It's being touted as the biggest-budget project to come out of that deal so far, although the number isn't being specified. Given that the previous three co-productions - Children Of The Silk Road, The Dragon Pearl and 33 Postcards - amount to a combined total budget of about $60m, it doesn't necessarily mean The Nest is huge.
Nevertheless, “With a mesmerising story, the brilliance of director Kimble Rendall, the breathtaking talent of Li Bingbing and an A-List special FX team [X-Men: DOFP's Rising Sun PIctures], Nest is perfectly positioned to be a major commercial success with thrill-seeking audiences all over the world,” says producer Ying Ye. “We are excited to be working with the extremely talented Li Bingbing again, who is already a superstar in China and has a very broad appeal worldwide, winning over the hearts of audiences as well as top box office numbers.”
Pre-production is underway on the Gold Coast, for a release sometime next year.