The Curse of Turandot, a Chinese film inspired from Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's masterpieceTurandot, opened on Friday, currently sitting on the country's new titles' box-office charts.

As the second feature-length film helmed by director Zheng Xiaolong, most known for the popular TV series Empresses in the Palace, the fantasy epic stars actress Guan Xiaotong as Princess Turandot and American actor Dylan Sprouse as Prince Calaf, who falls for the cold, beautiful princess.

The stellar cast also includes Sophie Marceau, who portrays Calaf's mother, and award-winning actor Jiang Wen, who plays Turandot's father, a Chinese emperor.

Zheng, 63, said he got the idea to adapt the world-renowned opera into a film many years ago, but the project didn't go smoothly because the domestic industry was not yet ready to create his ideal visual effects.

In line with the development and expansion of China's movie market, Zheng managed to start the shooting over three years ago, gathering some international talent to work on fine art, editing and special-effect scenes.

"All over these years, the project was like a seed buried deep in my heart. When the situations were mature, the seed got a chance to sprout. Because the original story is actually an imagination of the East from a western perspective, our major job was to localize the story, make the plotline logical and reasonable," said Zheng.

Scriptwriter Wang Xiaoping, also wife of Zheng, echoed they have added a lot of oriental elements to make this "fairy tale"- a rarely shot genre in China - have a convincing foundation.

Set in a fictional dynasty ruled by Mongolians, the tale creates a key clue to re-explain Princess Turandot's bloody order that if her suitor fails to puzzle out the three riddles, they will be executed.

Besides, Wang added that firecrackers -- originally invented in China -- as a significant element to develop the story.