Shi says Lady of the Dynasty has been adapted from historical accounts of the Tang period and describes it as a "serious take" on the romance between Yang and the emperor at a time of great prosperity in ancient China, which he hopes will make the movie safe from censorship.

In the movie, the voice of a foreign ambassador at a Tang court is the main narrator. The movie chronicles the legendary romance of Yang, who was once married to the 18th son of Emperor Xuanzong, but fell in love with the father of her husband.

Their romance ended with Yang's execution ordered by her lover, the emperor, at the behest of his military. Xuanzong's advisors were suspicious of her and thought she ruined the country.

In one of his poems, the well-known Tang Dynasty politician Bai Juyi wrote, Yang was so enchanting that she was the only woman among some 3,000 in the palace with whom the emperor chose to have an intense relationship.

"I really admire her and I am even a bit jealous of the character, who could compete with so many women to win the love of then the country's most powerful man," says Fan, who herself made a red carpet splash at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Fan is one of China's most popular actresses. Her fashionista image has also grown in the past few years with nearly 2.8 million viewers searching for "similar costumes as Bingbing's" on Taobao, China's largest e-commerce service, according to Liu Chunning, CEO of Alibaba Digital Entertainment Group.

Fan says that every woman could dream of becoming Yang if she had a man spoiling her rotten.

The movie, which will be released on July 30, has an all-star cast, including Hong Kong veteran actor-singer Leon Lai Ming and Bruneian actor-singer Chun Wu.

Zbigniew Preisner, famous Polish composer, led the soundtrack development for the movie.