Chow Yun-Fat, who became famed two decades ago from the television series The Bund (Shanghai Tan), will return to the old-day Shanghai in a new Hollywood film.

The Hong Kong actor is the latest addition to the cast of Shanghai, which will begin filming soon in the eastern Chinese city, Chinese Web site Sohu.com reported.

Chow Yun-Fat (R) and Gong Li are seen in Zhang Yimou's 2006 film Curse of the Golden Flower. Chow will join the cast of Shanghai, an upcoming Hollywood film that also features Gong Li and John Cusack, Chinese media reported. (file photo: ent.sina.com.cn)

The Weinstein Company, one of Hollywood's biggest independent filmmakers, announced earlier that Chinese mainland actress Gong Li and American actor John Cusack will lead the film, which is set in World War Two Shanghai. It will be directed by Mikael Hafstrom.

Gong Li will play a Shanghai woman struggling to find true love with an American journalist while her ex-partner, the head of a local mob gang, takes revenge.

The report says Chow will complete the love triangle as the mob gang head, quoting Gong Li's agent Zeng Jingchao, who also revealed that Japanese actor Ken Watanabe is likely to be another new cast member. Zeng however declined to give further details.

If Chow makes his way to Shanghai, it will be his second cooperation with Gong Li following Zhang Yimou's 2006 blockbuster Curse of the Golden Flower.

(CRI January 29, 2008)