From the BBC:
Best known for his gangster roles, Chow will swap his trademark trench coat for scholarly robes in the movie.
The film will be a joint production between Beijing-based Dadi Cinema and the state-run China Film Group, a Dadi Cinema official told Associated Press.
Filming is due to begin in three weeks. A release date has yet to be announced.
The movie comes amid a surge in interest in the philosopher, who was practically outlawed during China’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.
We’ve certainly come along way since this:
This was a case study in how obscure research into ancient history can screw a philosopher even though he’s been dead for thousands of years. First you have Mao who liked to think of himself as a new Qin Shihuangdi [r. 246 BCE-221 BCE], ruthless but effective in unifying his country. Qin Shihuangdi was advised by Legalists whose principle ideological enemies were the Confucians…burning the books, banning the teachings, and even hoary chestnuts (almost certainly apocryphal) of scholars being buried alive. And of course there was the whole “associated with feudal culture, backwards thinking, etc.” that had been the main indictment of