For the Chinese film industry, the Lunar New Year is akin to Hollywood’s summer blockbuster season. It’s a time when major studios release their largest tentpole movies, helmed by the country’s top directors and featuring its biggest stars. Eager audiences pack local cinemas ready to be exhilarated while box office records are shattered on a now-annual basis.
The film expected to make history this holiday season is visionary action director Dante Lam’s The Rescue, which chronicles a Chinese rescue team’s death-defying mission to save survivors of a fiery offshore catastrophe. Comprised of men and women from various backgrounds and led by a maverick captain (played by heartthrob and action star Eddie Peng), the unit must set aside their differences to face escalating challenges across air, land and sea. In addition to Peng, the film’s ensemble cast includes Xin Zhilei (Crosscurrent) and Wang Yanlin (Operation Red Sea).
Buoyed by positive reactions at advance screenings and recognizing the potential to elevate the release of The Rescue into a global cinematic event, CMC Pictures will open the film in the UK in theatres and IMAX on January 24, a day ahead of its China release. In addition to the Chinese language / English-subtitled print of the film scheduled to play in all major markets, CMC will also offer an English dubbed version at select theatres. Watch the official trailer here:
About The Rescue
Boasting one of the biggest budgets ever for a Chinese film at $100 million, the stunt- and pyrotechnic-filled spectacle features an A-list Hollywood production team that includes Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Forbidden Kingdom), production designer Martin Laing (Titanic, Clash of the Titans) and special effects supervisor John Frazier (Spider-Man, Transformers). The Rescue‘s epic visuals were achieved through some of the world’s leading digital effects companies including Scanline VFX (Avengers, Godzilla), Digital Domain (Avengers: Endgame, Ready Player One) and Macrograph VFX (The Wandering Earth, Operation Red Sea). In addition to filming on location in China, additional shooting took place at Mexico’s Baja Studios, where the production team utilized the same facilities as Titanic for the movie’s large scale underwater sequences.
The Rescue is the first film to showcase the China Rescue & Salvage (CRS), a lesser-known division of the Chinese Coast Guard. Founded in 1951, the unit is charged with responding to all maritime emergencies on Chinese waters, which range from shipwreck salvage missions to marine firefighting. After learning about the CRS five years ago, Lam became determined to bring the stories of these unsung heroes to the big screen in a very big way.
The Rescue will open in the following cities and locations in the United Kingdom:
- Birmingham
- Brighton
- Cardiff
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Gilford
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- London
- Loughborough
- Manchester
- Newcastle
- Nottingham
- Preston
- Sheffield
- Southampton
