“Hero” and “House Of Flying Daggers” director Zhang Yimou has began lensing on his latest effort, an adaptation of Chinese author Aimi Zhu’s period drama “Hawthorn Tree Forever.”
Based on an adapted script by fellow filmmaker Yin Lichuan, the film will follow an innocent but repressed romance between a city girl of a condemned political background and a young man from a rural village. It’ll see Zhang return to pure drama after his outrageous remake of the Coen Brothers’ “Blood Simple” in “A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop.”
While the film’s lead actors are yet to be announced, the pair are apparently virtually unknown actors still in drama school but are joined in the film by the more experienced thesps Li Xuejian, Sa Rina, Lu Liping and Sun Haiyin. Shooting will reportedly take three months and is scheduled for an early October release in China.
Zhang is also currently preparing to shoot his historical drama “Thirteen Girls” which is aiming to shoot by year’s end. Adapted from the work of well-known author Yan Geling, the story centers on thirteen prostitutes who pose as a group of convent girls forced to accompany invading Japanese forces to a party with the intention of revenge. A Chinese “Inglourious Basterds”? Interestingly, Zhang has reportedly hired Yan to translate the book with an eye on an American cast possibly for some supporting roles.
“We started contacting Hollywood A-list actors at the beginning of this year,” producer Zhang Weiping told ChinaDaily. “Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt all showed an interest. But the final decision will depend on their schedules… The film focuses on human nature, we put the story in the background of World War II to display the Chinese struggle and distaste for war and to show our national spirit. It will be a ‘Schindler’s List’-like epic movie.”
When asked about what role the trio will portray, producer Zhang simply noted that “maybe it will be that of a Pastor” which leads us to believe the role will be a cameo similar to the appearance of Hugh Jackman in Wayne Wang’s “Snow Flower & The Secret Fan” and might even be specifically written and added for what ever actor can join. Either way, it does sound like Zhang has some major things in the works.