Director Chuan Lu to shoot blockbuster in Israel in April

Tourism Ministry is investing over NIS 300,000 in promoting the movie.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Zhang Jingchu 370 (photo credit: Beijing Chuan Films)
Zhang Jingchu 370
(photo credit: Beijing Chuan Films)
Chinese film director Chuan Lu is set to shoot scenes in Israel next month for Old Cinderella, starring Zhang Jingchu (Rush Hour 3) and expected to be a blockbuster. Lu is well-known for The Missing Gun (2002), Mountain Patrol (2004), City of Life and Death (2009) and The Last Supper (2012).
Approximately one-sixth of the movie is to be filmed here. The locations, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, were chosen in January on a visit by the production team. The week’s filming in Israel will start on April 16, with the team being assisted by a local film company.
The Tourism Ministry is investing over NIS 300,000 in promoting the movie. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said Thursday that “the tourism potential for Israel from China is far from realized and one of the goals of the ministry for 2013 is to break through into the Chinese market. Undoubtedly, the effect of a movie, shot in Israel with leading Chinese stars, will be greater and more significant than other alternative marketing activities.”
The Chinese Tourism Ministry is cooperating with the production company to promote tourism to the Jewish state, and has even set up a competition with an Israeli holiday as first prize.
In 2012, 8 million Chinese selected their tourist destination based on countries they had seen in movies, a survey showed.
Other Chinese tourism-for-the-Holy-Land marketing activities planned for this month and next include campaigns on Weibo, China’s most popular social website, and the hosting, in Israel, of journalists from leading Chinese media.
Some 20,000 Chinese tourists visited the country in 2011 and 2012. The Chinese Tourism Ministry has invested about $500,000 in promoting travel to Israel, including seminars, marketing agreements and support for wholesalers and tour operators.
China is an important source of international tourism, with an increase of 20 percent between 2010 and 2011.