Hong Kong star Andy Lau has signed on to play the lead in$10-15m period drama, Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon(working title), to be directed by Black Mask director Daniel Lee.

Arclight Films is handling international sales on the filmwhich is being produced by Hong Kong-based Visualizer Film Production and Lau'sFocus Films. Production is tentatively scheduled for late summer 2006.

The film is based on one of China's most popular classicalnovels, The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, which also provided sourcematerial for John Woo's upcoming The Battle Of Red Cliff. Lee's filmtells the story of Zhao Ziling, a military commander during the turbulent ThreeKingdoms period,who willbe played by Lau.

Lau, who is one of Hong Kong's most bankable actors, seemsto have acquired a taste for big-budget period films after starring in ZhangYimou's House Of Flying Daggers last year. He's also set to star in $18mBattle Of Wisdom (working title), a co-production between China's HuayiBrothers and Hong Kong's Sundream Motion Pictures, to be directed by JacobCheung. Based on a popular Japanese manga, the film is set during China'sWarring States period.

Meanwhile Visualizer, founded by Hong Kong-basedproducers Catherine Hun and Bey Logan, recently wrapped a contemporary martialarts action title, Dragon Squad, which is also directed by Lee. The$6.5m film stars Hong Kong action veteran Sammo Hung along with US action starMichael Biehn and idols Andy On and Vanness Wu.