Venice, Aug 31 (IANS): Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage has praised Chinese cinema for being "good".

"I am attracted by Chinese cinema because it is good," Cage said Friday at the Venice Film Festival on the Lido island in Italy.

He added that Chinese cinema has many "great actors such as Liang Chaowei and Zhou Runfa", reports Xinhua.

"I have a great relation with China and I am proud of that," said the actor, who has visited China several times.

"There is a great flow in the conversation that I have with the people there, they are always very warm to me and I am very thankful," he added.

The 49-year-old said that he is "going to be in China in about three weeks to play in a Chinese financed film called 'Outcast'". It is an action adventure movie, which will also star Hayden Christensen.

"I am looking forward to starting this, as I have not made a movie with China yet but I was told that the experience is really a good one, and they have fantastic food on the set all day," he said with a smile.

In the Venice Film Festival, Cage is playing a hard-drinker in his latest film, David Gordon Green's brutal American South drama "Joe", premiering in competition.

For the title role, Cage said that he focused on finding the truth in the performance trying to make the character come to life.

"I read the book, which allowed me to find the character and align myself with the director's vision," he added.

Cage, who called "Joe", "one of the most memorable" films he has worked on in his over three-decade-old career, also said in a news conference that he has no intention to retire any time soon.