Easternlight Films, the Asian label of Sydney- and Los Angeles-based sales agency Arclight Films Pty Ltd, has picked up rights to The Assassins, a Chinese historical action epic featuring superstar Chow Yun-fat.

In Assassins, Chow plays soldier and politician Cao Cao, who appears to be plotting the overthrow of the emperor. It also stars Crystal LIU, TAMAKI Hiroshi, Alec SU, Annie Shizuka Inoh and Chiu Hsin-chih.

Now in post-production, the film is directed by first timer ZHAO Linshan, from a screenplay by WANG Bin, who previously wrote Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Fearless (2006).

The company has also come aboard Hur Jin-ho's big-budget Chinese retelling of Dangerous Liaisons.

Dangerous Liaisons features South Korea's JANG Dong-gun, China's Zhang Ziyi and Hong Kong's Cecilia Cheung in a 1930s-set retelling of the infamous French tale of treacherous love games. Relocated to Shanghai, it has been adapted by novelist Yan Geling (The Flowers of War).

In Berlin's European Film Market, Easternlight will also be selling the previously announced martial arts picture The Four, also starring Crystal Liu, and the English-language retelling of Mulan, about a famous female warriors in Chinese history. That project, described by the company as being in pre-production, previously had Dutch action specialist Jan De Bont attached as director. It is now pitching it on the strength of its Deborah Chow (The High Cost of Living) screenplay.

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