Tim Robbins And Adrien Brody Cast In WWII Chinese Famine Film

Briefly: Here's another example of the increasing, and sometimes increasingly weird, overlap between the US and Chinese film industries. Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody have been cast in a film that will chronicle the effects of a famine that devastated central China as war raged against Japan in 1942. That's not quite the same as Zhang Yimou hiring Christian Bale for The Flowers of War, but it is the result of the same idea being put into play. That is: increase global distribution opportunities by bringing in American actors.

The film has no title as yet, and will be helmed by director/actor/writer Feng Xiaogang (A World Without Thieves). Variety says the film will be based on the novel Remembering 1942 by Liu Zhenyun. The book's story is set in the Henan province in central China, where drought and the distraction of war against occupying Japan led to a deadly food shortage.

No word on what roles Robbins and Brody might play, or plans to distribute the eventual film.