OSCAR-WINNING French director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Wolf Totem” will feature Chinese stars Feng Shaofeng and Dou Xiao in its leading roles.

    The announcement from Edko Films confirms speculation of Feng’s involvement in the project, after the “Tai Chi” and “Painted Skin: Resurrection” star revealed to the Chinese press two months ago plans to collaborate with a French filmmaker this year.

    In an adaptation of an award-winning, semi-autobiographical novel by mainland Chinese writer Jiang Rong, Feng is expected to play a student being sent to work in the Inner Mongolian steppes during China’s Cultural Revolution, and whose new way of life is thrown into chaos as an apparatchik orders the killing of all wolves living in the area.

    Dou sprung to fame in Zhang Yimou’s 2010 film “Under the Hawthorn Tree,” in which he plays a land prospector who falls in love with a highschool student arriving to work in a village during the Cultural Revolution.

    Annaud first became involved with “Wolf Totem” in 2009, when he inked a deal with Beijing Forbidden City Pictures’ CEO Zhang Qiang, who has since moved on to become vice president of China Film Group and is also a backer of the project. Bill Kong, Edko Films’ CEO, joined the project in 2010.

    “Wolf Totem” secured official co-production status last month with a signed deal at the Beijing Film Market. The US$38 million project is slated to begin shooting this month and is expected to wrap by the end of the year, with plans for a 2014 release. Edko is handling U.S., Latin American and Asian rights for the film, with Wild Bunch SA, a French film distribution and international sales company, attending to European territories.

    “Wolf Totem” marks the first time a prominent foreign filmmaker is to helm a Chinese production.

    Annaud won an Academy Award for his “Black and White in Color” in the best foreign-language film category in 1976. His other films include “The Name of the Rose” (1986), “The Bear” (1989), “The Lover,” (1992) and “Wings of Courage” (1995) and “Black Gold” (2011).

    (SD-Agencies)