Orphan of the Zhao Family
By admin on 2014-12-29

As one of the year's most anticipated films, director Chen Kaige's Orphan of the Zhao Family announced Monday the casting of Zhang Fengyi as its second lead.

As one of the Chinese mainland's most well-known character actors, this is Zhang's third cooperation with Chen, after Farewell My Concubine in 1993 and The Emperor and the Assassin in 1998.

He said that both the former cooperations were "pleasant" and two highlights of his acting career.

According to Zhang, he has not read the script of Orphan of the Zhao Family yet.

"Chen just took me out for a dinner during which he told me of my character and his part in the story and then I decided to take it."

Zhang said that he had watched Chen's works over the past 12 years since their last cooperation, which in his opinion are "better and more mature." He added that with his acting also skills improving over the years, he expected that the new cooperation would be a successful one.

The film is scheduled to start shooting before the end of the month. Fan Bingbing has been named as playing the leading female role instead of the earlier-rumored Korean actress Song Hye Kyo.