Hong Kong's Peter Chan has begun shooting American Dreams in China in Beijing and Tianjin. It is his first film as director since the martial arts drama Wu Xia.

The film is described as "a sweeping tale of friendship, loyalty and betrayal of three university graduates through the rise of a multi-billion dollar tutorial empire they established together." The story spans several decades from the period of early economic reforms in 1980s China through to the present day.

The narrative is believed to be loosely based on the true story of Michael Yu, who founded New Oriental School in 1993. Two decades on, Yu describes his education empire as "the largest provider of private educational services in China", with 608 learning centres and over 15,500 teachers in 49 cities.

The production, through Chan's own We Pictures Ltd and China Film Co Ltd, is budgeted at 60 million yuan (US$9.4 million).

Although the film has started shooting, We Pictures stated that they will not reveal the names of the cast until a later date. However Chinese-language media is already reporting the casting of Huang Xiaoming, Tong Dawei and Deng Chao, first revealed by producer Zhang Qiang on his Weibo microblog.

The crew features a number of Chan's regular collaborators including Christopher Doyle as cinematographer, Sun Li as production designer and Dora Ng as costume designer. Doyle last worked with Chan on Perhaps Love (2005) before being replaced by Peter Pau mid-shoot.

Chan is expected to complete principal photography, which will also include scenes shot in New York, before he takes up his role as juror at the end of August at the Venice International Film Festival.

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