Shooting for the film version of The Rape of Nanking, Chinese-American author Iris Chang's historical account of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, is set to begin in January in Nanjing, an official of the Chinese group involved in the project has said.

Li Xiangmin, chairman of the Jiangsu cultural industry group, said in a recent telephone interview with Kyodo News that the movie, to be produced jointly by Chinese, American and British moviemakers, will be directed by Hollywood director Simon West.

The movie is set to be shown in China on December 13, 2007, the 70th anniversary of the killing of Chinese civilians and the destruction of the city by Japanese troops, and is scheduled to hit theaters worldwide in 2008.

Li said the incident will be depicted through a story of a mother and her daughter and that American William Macdonald will handle the script. The budget of the film is over 300 million yuan ($38 million).

Chang's The Rape of Nanking, became a bestseller in the United States after it was first published in 1997. Some in Japanese political circles protested the book, saying it included historical inaccuracies.

Nanking, a former Chinese capital, is now called Nanjing.

China says that 300,000 Chinese were killed during the massacre. A number of Japanese researchers consider the death toll to more likely be between 100,000 and 200,000.

(Agencies via CRI December 14, 2006)