Chow Yun-Fat To Play Title Role in 'Confucius'

Chow Yun-Fat is slowly easing into that part of an actor's career where the leading roles are fewer and the supporting roles are far more prevalent.

After a series of starring roles in movies of varying degrees of quality (some great, though, to be sure), Yun-Fat has turned in supporting performances in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Dragonball." Yun-Fat has two more movies coming up where he is part of the supporting cast in "Shanghai" and "The Red Circle," and while those movies have undeniably good casts, Yun-Fat is certainly not the star of either film.

However, the 53-year-old actor, who was born in Hong Kong, has lined up a lead role that just may be perfectly suited for him. ScreenDaily.com is reporting Yun-Fat will play the lead role in "Confucius" for Dadi Century Film, a Beijing-based production company.

For those who don't know, Confucius was a legendary Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Vietnamese thought and life.

According to ScreenDaily.com, "Chen Daoming (Hero) will portray Lao Zi, another Chinese philosopher and the founder of Taoism, who gave Confucius advice on history and the arts."

The site also reports that Zhou Xun (Painted Skin) is rumored to be the leading woman in the film, but Dadi Century has yet to confirm the casting of any of the female roles.

Shooting of the film is slated to start at the end of this month in Beijing. The film, a co-production between Dadi Century Films and Chinese state-owned China Film Group Corporation, is schedule to be released sometime before the Chinese New Year in 2010 (Feb. 14).