Cast members Gan Wei, Sun Li, director Jeffery Lau, robot KX, Hu Jun, Ronald Cheng and Alex Fong pose at a press conference in Shanghai on Sunday, June 14th, 2009. [CRI]

The box office receipts for director Jeffrey Lau's superhero movie "Metallic Attraction: Kungfu Cyborg" are expected to reach 200 million yuan, or about 30 million US dollars, according to Wang Yuntian, an official with the production company Shanghai Film Group.

The 10-million-US-dollar budget sci-fi comedy is full of CGI scenes and presents visual effects as good as "Transformers", Wang Yuntian said.

All the big-name cast members attended a press conference for the movie in Shanghai on Sunday. However, their thunder was stolen by a KX, a robot modeled on Bruce Lee.

"Compared with foreign superheroes, Mr. KX is more considerate," said Sun Li, who fell in love with the robot in the movie, "he knows what girls want and it's easy to love him."

But the super fighting robot ran into program errors whenever he tried to show affection, causing many comical incidents.

"Infernal Affairs II" actor Hu Jun, who is known for his previous tough-man character roles, tried his hand at comedy for the first time and played the love rival of the robot KX.

"Metallic Attraction: Kungfu Cyborg" is set for Chinese release on August 13th and there will probably be a second installment next year.

"The movie is open-ended," said Sun Li, "the director has told me the story of the sequel, and I think it's a good one."

(CRI June 15, 2009)