Mind Over Dark Matter

Some films smack of missed opportunities. Meryl Streep has played almost every accent under the sun, but Chinese? Alas, no. Unfortunately, in the drama Dark Matter, despite working with a Chinese star and director Streep will be playing a boring old American. Ah well, we can keep hoping. The film centres around a Chinese science whizzkid, studying at an American university. He dreams of one day winning a Nobel prize, but goes off the rails when campus politics threaten his ambitions. Streep plays the wealthy university benefactor who befriends the student. The film is loosely based on the true story of a disgruntled physics student from China who went postal on an Iowa campus in 1991 and shot six people. Chinese actor Liu Ye will play the student, while Chen Shi-zheng has signed on to make his directorial debut after a distinguished career directing operas. We therefore expect his films to be full of very large ladies and people taking twenty minutes to drop dead after receiving a mortal blow, but we're willing to be proved wrong.