Preproduction readies for Zhang Yimou's 'Golden Armor' shoot

Shooting begins this week in a Bejing sound studio on Zhang Yimou's epic 'Golden Armor'. Preproduction is almost completed and so is the cast [Jay Chou joined the cast recently playing the role of a young prince and an unidentified female has yet been cast in the role of Jiang E]. Early set photos of the post at the 'heavenly pit' weren't very flattering but as you can see in the photo to the left the crew have done a bang-up job getting things looking right.

Right now about 3,000 workers are hard at it buidling a replecate of the Forbidden City in Hengdian World Studios. Because the architecture was different between the dynasty that the story of 'Golden Armor' is set during the Tang Dynasty [7th - 9th Century] and the Forbidden City was built in the 14th Century in the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Nearly 3 million gold color chrysanthemum flowers and about 1.1 million fake chrysanthemum flowers have been ordered to fill the replicated Forbidden City.

20,000 suits of armor were prepared for the extras. The art department has also fabricated four combat vehicles, the rest will be added digitally.

[source]