Chinese Star Zhang Hanyu to Lead Suspense Drama ‘Unspoken’

Chinese actor Zhang Hanyu (The Taking of Tiger Mountain) has grabbed the lead role in Unspoken, a China-Canada co-production.

Zhang, who also starred in Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall, opposite Matt Damon and Andy Lau, toplines an ensemble cast for the suspense drama that includes Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead), Jake Abel and Vivienne Tien. Filming is taking place in China and Manitoba, Canada, for a 2022 release.

Written and directed by Daming Chen, Unspoken tells the story of Xu, played by Hanyu, an estranged father separated from his deaf daughter and her new life at an American university. After his daughter’s sudden death, Xu, an ex-cop, believes local authorities are pursuing the wrong suspect to explain her death and that racism has compromised the investigation.

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With a young Chinese translator (Tien) at his side, Xu tries to learn what happened to his daughter and in the process reconnect with her life as a young adult. Unspoken is produced by Huanxi Media and CMC Pictures of CMC Inc., with an international production team led by Court Five’s Mark Ordesky and Jane Fleming, Chinese producer Han Sanping and CMC’s Ming Beaver Kwei. Former Columbia/TriStar president of production Chris Lee is executive producing.

While Canada has become a major co-production locale for indie filmmaking, Canadian producers looking to China for funding and co-production partners have emerged with relatively few projects, compared to those completed with European and other international partners.

“Daming’s vision is as inspiring as it is relevant. We are thrilled to be working with this illustrious Chinese team to ramp a truly international production. With three languages (English, Chinese and ASL) being utilized regularly on set, we are living proof that with effort and patience, understanding is always possible,” Ordesky and Fleming said in a statement.

Cudlitz is represented by APA, Anonymous Content. Abel is represented by APA and Untitled Entertainment.