The Hollywood Reporter brings word of some interesting casting as Christian Bale seems to have found himself a film to work on before donning the Batsuit one last time in The Dark Knight Rises. Bale has been cast in Zhang Yimou’s next film to be titled Nanjing Heroes the director announced today.
Nanjing Heroes will be based on the short story by Chinese author Yan Geling, “13 Prostitutes of Jinling,” centering on the Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese citizens in what was then the nation’s capital in 1937. Bale will play John, a priest who helps a great number of Chinese escape certain death.
Yimou is probably best known stateside for Hero, which starred Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Donnie Yen, Chen Dao Ming, Maggie Cheung and Byung-hun Lee, but Nanjing Heroes will be the director’s biggest budget feature yet. The Hollywood Reporter says the budget on the film will equal the budget of John Woo’s Red Cliff, and approaches the total box office take of Aftershock, now China’s most successful domestically-produced film.
The film is expected to begin shooting on January 10 in a Republican Era (1911-1949) replica church built near Nanjing. As for The Dark Knight Rises, last I read expectation was to begin shooting in May 2011 for a July 20, 2012 release. That, of course, could still change.
