Jet Li breaks Chinese film salary record

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

London, (ANI): Chinese action hero Jet Li became the highest earning actor in a Chinese-language film after raking in a whooping 100m Yuan (6.5m pounds) for his latest movie. The 'Hero" star will receive the amount for his role in The Warlords, a war epic based on a Qing Dynasty story.

He also held the previous salary record for his role in the 2002 film Hero, where he earned 70m yuan (4.6m pounds). The director of the film Peter Chan said that without Jet Li they wouldn"t have dared to invest such a raking amount.

"Without Jet Li, we would not dare to invest 300m yuan in a Chinese-language film," BCC quoted the director as telling Xinhua news agency. The former national kung fu champion made his name in Hong Kong films in the 1990s before moving on to Hollywood, where he starred in films including Lethal Weapon 4 and Kiss of the Dragon. He is currently filming The Mummy 3, playing a resurrected ancient Chinese emperor. The Warlords is due to be released in Asia in December.