In October 2006, almost eight years after Roger Spottiswoode had first read James MacManus’ screenplay, The Children of Huang Shi was ready to commence official pre-production. Inspired by true events, MacManus found the story on a trip to Shandan where George Hogg is buried. At the same time, Spottiswoode was interested in and researching that particular time in China’s history – the late 1930’s. “I was much more interested in making a film with a real character than a political film on a particular subject,” he says. “George took care of a group of children and what he did was in some ways much more valuable and courageous than fighting the war. Through his actions he discovered that he didn’t need to be on the battlefield to be heroic, he found heroism inside of himself.” The two wars taking place simultaneously in China would provide an extraordinary backdrop for a character who was trying to find himself.

The project went though several years of development before Spottiswoode brought in Wieland Schulz-Keil, a veteran film producer who he had collaborated with in 1994 on Mesmer. “I immediately liked the story because in the background there is a historical event, in the foreground there’s a love story then somewhere in the middle are the children led on a journey by this one incredible man,” says Schulz-Keil. He also knew that Spottiswoode was the right director to bring this idea to the screen. “Roger is very good at this sort of thing. He has done films in foreign countries in South Africa and Rwanda and these are the kind of movies he excels in.”

The filmmakers needed the film to achieve Chinese national status and for this to happen they had to form a co-production that would allow them to secure local distribution in advance. They persuaded Peter Loehr of Ming Productions in China to join them. Although Loehr was able to achieve local distribution, they still needed to secure Government assistance via a link from China to another country. Jonathan Shteinman from Bluewater Pictures in Australia joined the production and persuaded Martin Hagemann from Zero Fiction in Germany to become involved making the film an official Chinese-Australian-German coproduction.

The Oscar-winning producer Arthur Cohn formed the last piece of the puzzle. He says it was the story of the children that ignited his interest. “As well as there being several wonderful human stories between three leading characters the main story is still children in difficult circumstances and this is what makes it human,” he says.

During this time Spottiswoode continued to work with screenwriter James MacManus. Later Jane Hawksley was brought in as a writer. With some assistance from Spottiswoode’s history consultant and friend, Judith Rascoe, Hawksley and Spottiswoode created a screenplay that the director refers to as a “true collaboration.”

During this time Spottiswoode also worked on assembling his international cast. Chow Yun Fat, one of the best-known Chinese actors in the world, expressed interest very early on for the role of Chen, a Chinese Partisan leader who becomes Hogg’s closest friend. As Yun Fat recalls, “I was filming in a little town outside Toronto and Roger flew to meet me. He was incredibly passionate about the project. I read Chen’s character and found his journey very poignant and emotional. Very quickly I told him no matter what I would make this movie.”

In the lead role Spottiswoode cast the very charismatic Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers who had recently won a Golden Globe in for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Elvis. On Rhys Meyers the director says, “Johnny is a real Englishman, and he had just the right amount of knowledge and lack of knowledge to step into this world.” Rhys Meyers admits that he didn’t research China as he wanted to experience what Hogg did when he landed in Shanghai – the strangeness, the displacement and excitement. “I wanted to be faced with everything Hogg was – being in a different world so far away from the things he knew,” Rhys Meyers explains.

On the film’s story Rhys Meyers adds that he is attracted to stories about relationships. “The intimacy of relationships is what makes for epic stories. There is nothing as epic as the human heart and what it can do – both constructive and destructive and we experience both sides through these characters.”

Opposite Meyers in the role of Lee, Spottiswoode cast Radha Mitchell who is best known for her diverse roles in Melinda and Melinda, Finding Neverland and Silent Hill. Spottiswoode met the actress in Los Angeles while she was in between projects. Mitchell had already read the script and they met to discuss the character. “I was instantly inspired by Roger’s passion and attitude. He seemed to be a real adventurer and I definitely like that kind of energy around me on set,” she says.

Mitchell liked that the story dealt with the casualties of war – what happens when everyone’s left behind. “Each of the lead characters is searching and yearning for a sense of place and home and so are the children. This is where the real war takes pace.”

Spottiswoode had already worked with Michelle Yeoh in the James Bond action thriller Tomorrow Never Dies. The Chinese actress is well known to a worldwide audience through her outstanding performances in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Moonlight Express. When Spottiswoode approached her about the role of Madame Wang, she was excited to work with him again. “He discussed the story in great length with such vigor and passion,” she remembers. “I agreed to read the script and could instantly relate to Madame Wang. She is so typical of China – of those turbulent times, a widow trying to survive against all odds.”

A few weeks out from principal photography there were still a few supporting roles to be cast. The Australian actor David Wenham, who featured in the Lord of The Rings trilogy, was approached to play the role of Barnes, a hardened war correspondent. By filming in a short block of time he was able to take the role before rehearsals commenced on Baz Lurhmann’s feature Australia.

A worldwide search had been in place for Shi-Kai, the 16year old ringleader of the orphaned boys. “We searched Toronto, Vancouver, America and London and finally found Guang Li, a student from Sydney, Australia,” says Spottiswoode. “He’s very talented, very intelligent and incredibly interesting on screen. We had looked at 1000 kids or so. It was a relief to find him.” Fluent in English and Mandarin this is Li’s first professional acting role.

During this time the filmmakers were in China searching for the children to play the 60 orphans. “Arthur had recently worked with children on Les Choristes and earlier on Central Station and we all agreed that the casting of these children was integral to the film,” explains Schulz-Keil. “Although it’s an English speaking film the kids didn’t really need to speak English, other than Shi-Kai.”

The filmmakers visited two types of schools in China. One group of school trains their students to become professional opera performers. The other type of school is set up for children of migrant workers. Established by teachers with a theatre background, they use acting as an educational tool as part of their curriculum. “These children are very poor and the performing arts helps them to socialize and cope and deal with other children. We saw hundreds of these children from here and they were all very impressive,” Schulz-Keil explains.

During pre-production an extensive location scout took place covering nearly 7000 kilometers all over China. They traveled from the spectacular Gobi desert into the breathtaking mountains near Lanzhou and beyond. Once the locations were found, a laborious and detailed process of acquiring permits and obtaining approvals lay ahead of them. The official production status of the film helped expedite this process. In the end, they were extremely fortunate to secure some of the most famous national monuments and hauntingly beautiful locations in China, turning it into another character in the film.

Of great historical significance is the area where some of the biggest scenes were filmed in and around Dunhuang, not far from the Western end of The Great Wall that defended China for thousands of years. Filming took place only 100 kilometers from where the wall ends. This site is also close to where the actual orphanage was built that inspired the film’s story.

During pre-production, the film crew centered themselves at the Hengdian, Film studio, China’s largest backlot, situated in the mountainous Zhejiang Province in Eastern China.

The film’s creative team was assembled from around the world, headed by the Chinese director of photography Zhao Xiaoding, (Curse of The Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers). Steven Jones Evans, an Australian production designer whose credits include Two Hands, Ned Kelly and Buffalo Soldiers was brought in to form the design team with Huang Xinming (Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, Road Home), one of China’s leading art directors. Australia’s Kym Barrett (Romeo and Juliet, Gothika, The Matrix) joined the team as Costume Designer together with Gao Wenyan (Devils on The Doorstep).

The scope of the production was immense, comprising of a predominantly Chinese crew of 300, including 15 Westerners and a dozen translators. Spottiswoode reveals that the language barrier added to the intensity of the shoot. “You really are mute and deaf and its complicated. It was more difficult than any country I had been to before. Everything was done through translators and after several months it was very draining.”

Schulz-Keil adds that the language barriers were particularly challenging when working with a predominantly Chinese-speaking crew where every word had to be translated. “I spent six months looking for locations and filming went on for three to four months. During that time we were completely dependent on intermediaries so it was very strange and fatiguing.”

Rhys Meyers said the differences helped him get into character. “It had to be a shock to me. George’s ups and downs had to be my ups and downs. The things that I went through are the things that George went through. I came here a little deaf, dumb and blind and had to learn as I go but I managed to adapt to them quite quickly.”
In early November, the production traveled to Dunhuang in the Gansu Province, 3500 kilometers Northwest of Hengdian with Principal photography beginning on November 13th. Dunhuang is close to the historic junction of the Northern and Southern Silk Roads. The area where the crew was filming is often referred to as on ‘oasis’, the most spectacular part of the Gobi desert famous for its majestic sand dunes and unique rock formations known as the ‘Yadan’.

Because of the logistics of the locations and scheduling the crew had to begin shooting the end of the film at the beginning. Some of the most emotionally demanding scenes where filmed here including a scene that was shot in an ancient desert cemetery with tombs dating back thousands of years.

From Dunhuang production relocated to the small town of Liancheng. The small town is just outside the city of Lanzhou, previously known as the ‘Golden City’ and one of the stops along China’s Silk Road. In between Dunhuang and Lanzhou is the ancient city of Shandan that pays homage to George Hogg with an official monument that has been erected in the town’s centre. It is also home to Hogg’s grave where he is buried next to the Ruoshui River.
For the film crew, Liancheng was incredibly challenging, with very few facilities where they had to endure extremely cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls. But it was also home to one of the most beautiful and historic locations, an ancient Tibetan Monastery that became the set of the children’s orphanage.

Some of the film’s most challenging scenes were shot in the rugged mountains within this region with production on an incredibly grand scale. This was the setting for the traveling ‘caravan’ sequences with an endless procession of children, carts, belongings and animals through a difficult an unrelenting terrain. Up to 1000 extras were used in these scenes with hundreds of livestock, including 50 mules, 80 camels and 120 horses on any one day.

Rhys Meyers said the director helped him through some of the most difficult parts of the shoot. “Roger’s energy is extraordinary and he kept us all going. He’s also a famous editor with a wonderful eye so he can look at a scene and know exactly how it’s going to come out. That definitely helped because it saved us time.”

After several weeks on location, the production returned to Hengdian, to the local sound stage that would become their base for the next seven weeks. More than 200 construction workers were hired to refurbish and modify different sets and locations in and around the studio. These included the orphanage exteriors that were filmed in the town of Xiandu, and the Nanjing Street exteriors, one of the biggest constructions of the production.
During this time the crew filmed in one of China’s most famous national monuments and tourist destinations, a 15th Century Bourgeoisie home that belonged to the Lu family. The home is often referred to in Southern China as their ‘Forbidden Palace’ and was filmed as the interior of the Nationalist Headquarters for the purpose of the production.

Most films or nearly all films shoot out of sequence but as Spottiswoode notes, The Children of Huang Shi was filmed completely back to front from start to finish. The last days of filming in China took place in Shanghai at the Chedun Studios where the designers recreated a Shanghai street, hotel and ballroom as well as the International Settlement and Japanese Headquarters.

On February 15th, with filming in China completed, a reduced crew moved to Australia for one final day of principal photography in Melbourne Victoria where the very first scene of The Children of Huang Shi was filmed.

Principal Photography concluded on Wednesday February 21st, 2006.