Christian Bale to star in Zhang Yimou’s epic Nanjing Massacre

Though THE DARK KNIGHT RISES looms large on the horizon, Christian Bale has signed on to another big-budget epic set to begin filming next year. Chinese director Zhang Yimou (HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) announced yesterday that Bale has signed on to star in NANJING HEROES, a $90 million production set to begin filming next month in Nanjing.

The film will follow the Nanjing (or Nanking) Massacre that took place in the 1930s during the Sino-Japanese War. Japanese soldiers took Nanjing by force and killed and raped an estimated 50,000 civilians. Bale would star as an American priest working in China who helps the locals escape certain death. The film will be shot with about 40% of scenes in English with the remainder in Mandarin Chinese.

The film could very well wind up being the most expensive production in Chinese film history passing John Woo’s RED CLIFF.

It’s unclear at this time how or when the film would be released in the United States but Sony Pictures Classics has traditionally released Yimou’s films stateside.