Director Feng Xiaogang believes his movie about an earthquake that claimed 240,000 lives 33 years ago will gross a record 500 million yuan ($73 million).

The Tangshan Earthquake (Tangshan Da Dizhen), Feng's ongoing project, focuses on several survivors' lives in the 30 years following the disaster that struck the sleeping city on a 1976 night.

The most profitable film in China, so far, is Transformers II, with takings of more than 400 million yuan. Feng's last film If You are the One (Feicheng Wurao) raked in 350 million yuan, topping the local box office last year.

"Every time I anticipate the box office take, people think I am boasting, but every time I make it happen," he told a press conference in Tangshan, Hebei province, on Tuesday.

His new film focuses on the earthquake and its aftershocks on people's lives, not the depiction of the disaster itself. The earthquake scenes will last only several minutes, enhanced by a South Korean special effects team and German equipment to mock the shake.

"Although the earthquake is something tragic, this film is about warmth," Feng says.

The film's leading character is a girl who experiences the quake, aged 7, and lives under its shadow until she becomes a rescuer in the May 12 Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

Feng added the Sichuan quake scene after he went to Hanwang, one of the quake-hit areas last year.

"Among the wreckage of the small town, I found a powerful twist for my characters' fate," he says.

Renowned actor Chen Daoming, known for being picky with his roles, plays an officer. He says he took the part because of his own memories of the Tangshan earthquake and his gratitude to the Chinese army, the first rescuer in every major disaster.

When the earthquake hit, Chen was in Tianjin, a city just 130 km from Tangshan that was also shaken up.

As he recalls, the building shook drastically, while all the stoves along the corridor fell over (in the 1970s many urban Chinese people cooked on stoves in the corridor). The image of rolling, fiery-red coals in the corridor, is still fresh in his memory and will be represented in the film.

The quake destroyed one of the walls and the building became a "big closet without door."

"I wish I had never experienced it, and I hope no-one will experience it," he says.

Feng says Zhang Ziyi wanted to be involved and said she did not care about the pay. But because of the limited investment she was turned down.

"She is an international star now. I would feel bad if the pay was too shabby," he says.

Rising actress Zhang Jingchu takes the role instead.

The investment of 150 million yuan to complete the film is not enough, Feng says. His wife, Xu Fan, who plays Zhang's mother, also waived payment.

To present a convincing 1976, Feng asked for help from people who were around in the 1970s and 80s to donate their old furniture, bicycles, phones, toys etc. He also turned to Fan Jianchuan, a collector and private museum founder to search among his extensive collection for items.

The film will premiere on July 28, 2010, the 34-year-anniversary of the disaster.

(China Daily July 31, 2009)