China views director John Woo's latest film about an ancient Chinese war as a showcase of Chinese history and is pushing for it to be released before the Beijing Olympics, Woo's business partner said Tuesday.

Terence Chang said Beijing is treating "Battle of Red Cliff," starring Chow Yun-fat, as a marketing device for the 2008 Olympic Games.

"This movie has government backing. The government is taking it seriously because they want us to release it before the 2008 Olympics," Chang said on the sidelines of a film finance forum in Hong Kong.

The movie is a co-production between the state-owned China Film Group and Woo's Los Angeles-based Lion Rock Productions, which Chang helps run.

Chang said the importance attached to the project has made it easier to seek help from provincial officials.

Woo aims to start filming, mainly in the northern Hebei province, in March 2007.

Producer Chang said Woo's vision for the movie is ambitious, but that he has asked the director to keep the budget within US$50 million (euro40 million) _ generous funding by Chinese standards _ because the market for Chinese-language movies is limited. Chinese films are generally viewed across Asia, but the biggest potential market China, is still developing.

Chang said the movie, which may also feature Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai, has already been sold to distributors in China and Japan.

He said he hasn't given up on the U.S. and European markets because one selling point will be the movie's epic scale, "like 'Titanic' or 'Pearl Harbor."'

The producer said one scene would feature the burning of 2,000 boats with horses jumping around on them. Another will involve a booby-trapped battleship. Chang said the film makers have done extensive research on ancient Chinese weapons.

He said writing the script, now on its eighth draft, is a tough challenge because it needs to appeal to Westerners as well as viewers from Japan and South Korea who are more likely to be familiar with the history upon which the movie is based.

"Battle of Red Cliff" is set in China's ancient "three kingdoms" period in the third century, when China was split into three rival states.

Chang said "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" writer Wang Hui-ling worked on the script and Lu Wei, who worked on Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" and Zhang Yimou's "To Live," has recently joined the writing team.