The domestic success of her first film as producer has pushed Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi to target a wider audience with her next project.

Zhang is working with her friends Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan to produce the English-language film Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, according to Hollywoodreporter.com.

The actress will also star in the film, which will be directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Wayne Wang, who also did Maid in Manhattan.

Set in 19th-century China, the film is based on Lisa See's novel of the same name about a lifelong friendship between two women.

Shooting is slated to begin early next year in China.

Zhang Ziyi made her production debut with the urban romantic comedy Sophie's Revenge, in which she played the lead character. The film opened in China in mid-August and soon turned new director Jin Yimeng into the most bankable female director on the mainland.

Since the Oscar-winning 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Ziyi has become perhaps the best-known Chinese face in Hollywood. Her most recent English-language feature, Horsemen, was released earlier this year.

Previous reports suggest Zhang had teamed up with Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan to run a film studio. China-born Wendi Murdoch is the wife of News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch. Florence Sloan, a Malaysian-Chinese, is married to MGM chairman Harry Sloan.

Hollywoodreporter.com describes Zhang Ziyi as "following the practice of big Hollywood talent: establishing her own production company to pull in projects for herself and control a greater share of revenue."

(CRIENGLISH.com November 5, 2009)