[Photo provided to China Daily]

American actor Morgan Freeman and British actor Michael Caine are also familiar faces to Chinese moviegoers.

For director Chu, the stellar cast was one of the main reasons he agreed to do the sequel, despite not having directed the first movie.

Chu says he is a huge fan of French director Louis Leterrier, who directed the first film.

The latest film, in keeping with the franchise's tone of being magician David Copperfield's answer to Robin Hood and his Merry Men, is about four talented illusionists clashing with a tech-savvy villain.

Copperfield, the most commercially successful magician in history as listed by Forbes－and also one of the producers－was "with us from the very beginning and spent a lot of time on the sets teaching the actors", says Chu.