Guo Degang pulls off coup for his movie debut

BEIJING: For a first-time director, comedian Guo Degang has definitely pulled off a coup.

While most new directors struggle to assemble a stellar cast, he has managed to recruit a cast of 33 stars for his directorial debut, The Face of Gene.

The feature-length comedy, set to open on the first day of Lunar New Year on Feb 16, stars the action giant behind the Wolf Warrior franchise, Wu Jing; Taiwanese supermodel-actress Lin Chi-ling; actor Wu Xiubo ( Finding Mr Right); and the pop idol Jing Boran ( Monster Hunt).

Also recruited were stars like Wang Baoqiang, Li Chen, Du Chun, Huang Lei, Yu Qian, Sun Bei, Ma Su and Da Peng.

When you’re in the business of making people laugh, getting the actors you want looks like a shoo-in.

The movie is about a gifted yet unsuccessful writer’s timetravel stories. With a mysterious booklet recording his family’s history, he travels back in time to meet a dozen of his ancestors to seek their formula for success.

The writer is portrayed by Yue Yunpeng, Guo’s most popular disciple and also the star comedian behind a series of comedy hits, such as Revenge for Love.

Even award-winning director Feng Xiaogang showed up for a promotion last week.

“Guo’s cross-talk show tickets sold for up to 10,000 yuan ( RM6,300) by scalpers during the last Lunar New Year holiday. It will be much cheaper and easier to see his performance for two hours by spending just 9.9 yuan (the limited price for online marketing),” Feng wisecracked.