War for the Planet of the Apes will hit Chinese mainland theaters on Sept 15. [Photo provided to China Daily]

US filmmaker Matt Reeves again directs this installment after he directed the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).

Meanwhile, for China, where the movie industry has taken off only in the past decade, achieving world-class special effects in domestic productions is an aspiration.

Xu Fei, the founder of Illumina, a Beijing-based special-effects studio, says, "The major problem is that most directors and producers don't know how to make such a movie. It needs imagination and a lot of pre-production communication."

But for some Chinese directors, a shortage of performing talent is the bigger problem.

Lu, the director of the effects-studded movie Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe (2015), says it's difficult to persuade Chinese stars to play unconventional roles like the leader of apes, as they want their faces to be recognized by fans on the big screen only in mainstream roles.

"In Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe, for example, I had to play the monsters myself," he says, adding that it did save him some time and money.

Li Yingxue contributed to the story.