A-lister Wang Kai, who's followed by around 22 million fans on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, stars as the protagonist cop, while veteran Liu Yijun plays the tycoon.

The stellar cast also includes actress Wang Ou, who plays a police officer specializing in financial fraud, and actor Hu Jun, who portrays a veteran policeman, who loses himself to his desire for money.

Liu Xin reveals that he'd wished to helm such a story in 2016, but the project failed to launch.

So, he was excited when Shanghai-based production company Linmon Pictures contacted him last April.

He likens the Fox Hunt campaign theme to "an old friend I hadn't contacted in a long time who reached out to reconnect with me".

Scriptwriter Zhao Dongling and other major creators had already worked for three years to prepare the story. They'd traveled to Beijing, Tianjin and Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, to interview nearly 100 police officers who've joined Fox Hunt.

Liu Xin says he also talked with some police to seek inspiration.

One such discussion inspired a scene set in the United States in which the protagonist shows up at a meeting with the fugitive tycoon.