Cast confirmed for Zhang Yimou-helmed 'The Great Wall'

It has been announced that the cast for the Zhang Yimou-helmed epic 'The Great Wall,' that can be a game-changer as a rare U.S.-China co-production, has been locked.

As per Deadline.com, in addition to Matt Damon, who boarded the Legendary Entertainment's project in September, Pedro Pascal and Willem Defoe, some of the Middle Kingdom's most famous actors including Andy Lau, Eddie Peng and Jing Tian as well as Zhang Hanyu, Lu Han, Lin Gengxin, Zheng Kai, Chen Xuedong, Huang Xuan and Wang Junkai will be joining the team.

Universal Pictures has set a November 23, 2016 release date for the pic, which is now on track to begin shooting by the end of March and has been in development for a number of years with various iterations.

The film, which is being produced by Thomas Tull, Charles Roven, Jon Jashni, and Peter Loehr, centers on an elite force making a last stand for humanity on the world's most iconic structure, which has secrets hidden beneath its stones.

The script is by Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro, but the most recent draft is from Tony Gilroy, who is familiar to Damon in that he scripted the Bourne Identity films.

Jillian Share, Alex Gartner, Bennett Walsh, La Peikang and Zhang Zhao will executive produce with Er Yong, Alex Hedlund and Eric Hedayat co-producing.