Teaser Trailer for THE GREAT WALL Starring Matt Damon

With Jason Bourne opening this weekend it only made sense that Universal would also release the trailer for their next Matt Damon-led tentpole in The Great Wall. If it seems like you've been hearing or reading about this movie for some time that is likely because you have. At least five years ago there were talks of Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai) directing the film and a number of other actors (inlcuding Henry Cavill) starring in the lead role. As it has finally come to fruition though Universal has cast Damon in the lead and partnered with Legendary who are more or less a standalone entertainment company based in Hong Kong that have positioned themselves to produce films that are as commercially viable in China as they are worldwide (think Warcraft). In partnering with Legendary the studios have also brought in Hero and House of Flying Daggers director Zhang Yimou to helm the project and as far as visuals go this thing looks to be quite impressive. Though it is striking to see as white and as American a male as Matt Damon walking through hordes of Chinese soldiers in his Asian-inspired armor, one has to be curious exactly what the story is here especially given the plot summary only states that it is a mystery centered around the construction of the Great Wall of China. What we see in this first teaser though divulges the film will not necessarily be a strict drama that highlights one characters personal story concerning the construction of the wall as that's what I assumed it might be given it starred Damon and was originally set to be released this fall. Instead, we see that the great wall was built not only to keep out nomadic groups from the Chinese Empire, but apparently gigantic monsters as well. While the jury will be out on the story until after the movie comes out the visuals alone are enough to get me in a theater to experience this thing on the big screen. The Great Wall also stars Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Hanyu Zhang, Eddie Peng, Lu Han, Kenny Lin, Junkai Wang, Zheng Kai, Cheney Chen, Xuan Huang, Andy Lau, and will now open on February 17, 2017.



Synopsis: Starring global superstar Matt Damon and directed by one of the most breathtaking visual stylists of our time, Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), Legendary’s The Great Wall tells the story of an elite force making a valiant stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure. The first English-language production for Yimou is the largest film ever shot entirely in China. The Great Wall also stars Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe and Andy Lau.