China Film Group Corporation and Beijing Guoli Changsheng Film and TV Productions - which backed Ning's last film Crazy Racer - are both investing in the new production which is budgeted at around $2.92m (RMB20m). Guoli Changsheng is the production company of well-known actor/director Zhang Guoli.
Previously know as Western Sunshine, the film has been re-titled Wu Ren Qu in Chinese, which literally means 'No Man's Land', but the English title is yet to be confirmed.
Distinct from Ning's previous two black comedies Crazy Stone (2006) and Crazy Racer (2009), Wu Ren Qu will be a drama and road movie following a man's strange encounters during his trip to China's wild west.
Huang Bo, leading man in Crazy Racer, will star in the new film along with Yu Nan (Crazy Racer, Tuya's Marriage). Ba Duo, Wang Shuangbao and Xu Zheng round out the cast.
The film is scheduled for release during the 2009 year-end movie season.
Meanwhile, China Film Group, the main investor of Crazy Racer, held a press conference on Monday announcing that the film has passed the RMB100m ($14.61m)box office bench-mark.
The box office is around ten times the film's production budget of $1.46m (RMB10m). In 2006, Ning's Crazy Stone was made for $439,000 (RMB3m) but grossed nearly ten times its budget with box office receipts of $3.36m (RMB23m).
Ning, 32, is now the youngest filmmaker in China to break the RMB100m threshold. He is also the fourth Chinese filmmaker with claim to the title of 'RMB100m director' after Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige.
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