Cusack gets Shanghai’d

While John Cusack’s schedule is in flux due to the vacillating status of the action flick STOPPING POWER, the Weinsteins have lured him in with the opportunity to work with his 1408 director Mikael Hafstrom once again.

Cusack would take the lead in the period drama SHANGHAI, about an American visiting the titular Chinese city to solve the mysterious death of a friend. Complications come in the form of a Japanese occupation (the film is set just before the Pearl Harbor attack), a government conspiracy, and the distracting bosom of Gong Li, whose ample talents are pictured here.

The project is planned for a March 2008 start, which is when Cusack originally planned to make Jan de Bont’s kinetic thriller before the funding crumbled. He currently has WAR, INC. and GRACE IS GONE awaiting release. Li and her phenomenal cleavage were recently seen in CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER and MIAMI VICE.