James Pax & Wang Ji

    BEIJING, July 13 -- British director Nick Young began shooting a biographical documentary film about ancient Chinese Qin emperor Ying Zheng on Tuesday in Beijing.

    Ying Zheng was the first emperor of China's Qin Dynasty from 259 BC to 210 BC.

    A joint venture between Brit-ain's Channel 4 Television and the American Research Channel, the English-language film will feature Chinese stars James Pax and Wang Ji as leading actors.

    Both Pax and Wang speak fluent English and have lived abroad.

    The film's story, which is strictly based on known historical facts, will begin with an archaeologist exploring the Mausoleum of Ying Zheng, and then trace back to the life of the first emperor.

    Young, an acknowledged docu-mentary maker, was confident that as a foreigner, he could make a successful film about the legend-ary Chinese emperor.

    "It's not that I think I can do a better job than Chinese direc-tors. It's just that I want to tell the story to Western audiences in a Western way," Pax said.

    The film will premiere on Hong Kong Phoenix TV and China Cen-tral Television.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)