OSCAR-WINNING director Ang Lee said he had the most expensive “actor” in Hollywood in his film.

“My ‘actor’ is multiple times more expensive than the highest-paid star in Hollywood,” Lee said while promoting his upcoming film “Gemini Man” in Beijing last week.

The “actor” Lee mentioned was actually created by digital technology, transforming Will Smith — the 51-year-old Hollywood star — into a 23-year-old on big screen.

As Lee’s latest special-effects-studded production, “Gemini Man” is a thriller that tells the story of a retiring government assassin who discovers a younger clone of himself.

But interestingly, the script didn’t convince Lee at the first glance.

“The script is a bit old-fashioned and stereotyped. But I was thinking it would be weird and amazing to see a younger self from the past to stand face to face with the current self … What has time done to us? I wanted to examine this theme more,” Lee said.

There is another advanced cinematic technology that attracted Lee to shoot “Gemini Man.” The film has again applied the high-frame-rate photography that he used for shooting his last film “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which was shot in 3-D at 120 frames per second and 4k resolution.

Usually, a film is shot at 24 frames, meaning that “Gemini Man” has much clearer and brighter visual effects to provide a more immersive experience. Lee said the 120 frames could make audience feel like that they are onlookers who are in the same world as the characters, and will perhaps change the history of cinema.

“Gemini Man” will open in China on Saturday. (SD-Agencies)