MUMBAI: Christian Bale, who featured in The Fighter will now star in a Chinese film titled Nanjing Heroes, a film about the Nanjing Massacre. Bale will play an American priest called John who helps a great number of Chinese escape certain death.

The $90 million budget film directed by Zhang Yimou is roughly equal to that of John Woo‘s two-part period film Red Cliff that was said to be the most expensive ever Asian-financed movie.

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.

The film will be 40 per cent in English while the rest would be in Mandarin Chinese. Earlier, Sony Pictures Classics distributed Zhang‘s films in the United States but it is not involved at this time.

Zhang‘s highest-grossing film ever was 2002 period war film Hero starring Jet Li roped in almost $54 million in the US. His new film comes at a time when China‘s film business is booming at home and dominant in parts of Asia, but receives little attention elsewhere.

The film will start rolling on 10 January 10.