Great news for Gong Li fans! It's just been announced that the Singaporean-Chinese star actress, known for such films as Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), and most recently the hit fantasy The Monkey King 2, will lead the cast of the action thriller Ana, to be directed by the Kiwi filmmaker Martin Campbell.
The production on this new film, set in Europe and similar in tone to Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita, will launch in March/April 2018. According to the brief information available, it features a hacker and her partners in crime, who accidentally steal millions from a crime boss and then are forced into hiding to train for their eventual confrontation.
Martin Campbell is best known for his Bond films, GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006), as well as other popular outings like The Mask of Zorro (1998), Edge of Darkness (2010) and Green Lantern (2011). His latest film The Foreigner is an action thriller, which sees Jackie Chan in an unusual role, and has just come out in the US.
Ana will be co-produced by Arthur Sarkissian (the Rush Hour movies) and Bruno Wu (Grace of Monaco, The Immigrant), and is written by Richard Wenk (The Expendables 2, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back). IMDb reports that the story has been adapted from a novel written by Tony Kenrick, one of whose books was made into the 1986 movie Shanghai Surprise earlier, starring Sean Penn and Madonna.
We are eager to see Gong Li in a thrilling action caper, with a modern setting. Will keep you updated as new information comes out!
