Derek Yee's latest movie is made with extras

At a time when most movie producers seem to trust only celebrities to pull in box-office bucks, Hong Kong director Derek Yee has made a big-budget movie with, and about, a relatively unknown cast.

I Am Somebody is the story of "extras", or grassroots performers who struggle to find a foothold in the entertainment industry.

The 58-year-old veteran director - who's behind several hits, such as Triple Tap and Protege - wrote on his Sina Weibo account, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that inspiration for the movie came to him in August 2012. He was in Hengdian in East China's Zhejiang province, where the country's largest film shooting lot is located.