VENICE, Italy — Veteran action star Jet Li and action director Tony Ching are expanding their repertoire into the children’s fairy tale – but they also have an adult audience in mind.
Their latest movie, “The Sorcerer and the White Snake,” made its world premier out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.
The movie is based on a classic Chinese fairytale that has entered the popular consciousness as seamlessly as Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty in the West, with cast members saying they recalled hearing it first from their grandmothers.
But Ching says he sought to put a modern twist on the fable by mixing action with special effects. He says “the idea was to blend Chinese tradition, which is martial arts, with Western technology.”