Coming Soon, who clearly keep an eye on the Oriental Morning Post, are reporting that Hugh Jackman has signed on to join Wayne Wang's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The film was set to co-star Zhang Ziyi, but she's now reportedly been replaced by The Forbidden Kingdom's Li Bingbing.
The film is based on a novel by Lisa See, centring on the old Chinese tradition of laotongs, or "old sames": girls who are paired together as lifelong friends at an early age. The nineteenth-century saga follows Snow Flower and Lily through years of famine, political unrest and the Taiping revolution, arranged marriages and footbinding, until the dire consequences of a terrible betrayal.
Wayne Wang will be forever cool for his 1990s Paul Auster collaborations Smoke and Blue in the Face, although our faith was slightly shaken when he brought us Maid in Manhattan. It's not yet been revealed who Huge Ackman will be playing. Both girls marry, but Lily marries rather better than Snow Flower, into the region's most powerful family. Could he be Rich Powerful Husband?
Shooting started yesterday just outside of Shanghai. Jackman is due on set in a couple of weeks.