The story of the Chinese version of Sherlock Holmes will be returning to Chinese big screens this coming July.
The title of the newest film is 'Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings' and will star Taiwanese actor Mark Chao as Detective Dee. Chao appeared in the movie's prequel in 2013 'Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon.' Aside from Chao, he will be joined by Feng Shaofeng, Carina Lau, Lin Gengxin and Ma Sichun.
Directing the movie is Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, who had been behind the first two movies of the franchise.
When asked about his return to the franchise, Chao said, "When I finished filming for the (second) Young Detective Dee movie, I was asked if i would like to act in the third sequel. I said 'yes'. But i had to wait a very long time and was once worried i might be replaced by someone else."
He also shared details about the new film and said it is about the darkness of humanity, "The movie features a very complex case which involves a lot of people. Dee will face his most powerful enemies."
The film will also cover one of the unsolved puzzles from the first two films and it will continue from the timeline of the second film.
Director Hark shared that the new film will have more twists and he had also asked the playwright Chang Chia-lu to rewrite the script to add these twists.
The character Dee was taken from the 18th-century novel 'Di Gong An', written by an anonymous writer. The novel was based from the background of a seventh-century politician Di Renjie, who worked in the court of Chinese empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
The novel was then translated by Dutch writer Robert van Gulik in 1940 and was entitled 'Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee' with Di now known as Dee.
'Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings' will be released on July 27 nationwide.
