Myriad Pictures has picked up worldwide rights in all mediato the true-life drama Dark Matter starring Meryl Streep,Greg Kinnear and Chinese star Liu Ye, who stars in Chen Kaige's ThePromise .

Filming is scheduled to begin in spring 2005 in Utah andChinese opera director Chen Shi-Zheng will make his feature directorial debut.Myriad will begin sales at AFM this week.

Andrea Miller and Mary Salter are serving as producers and Janet Yang will serve as executive producer.

Based on a screenplay by Billy Shebar, DarkMatter centres on Liu Xing, a brilliant Chinese academic and aspiringNobel Prize winner who kills himself and five other people when his aspirationsare thwarted by campus politics.

Director Chen's credits include Peach BlossomFan, the last instalment in a trilogy of Chinese theatre works thatmade its debut at the new Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

"One rarely comes across a project of such integrity andscope that you know that you want to be involved," Myriad president KirkD'Amico said in a statement.

"Dark Matter is one of those projects.The script, cast and vision of the director leave me in no doubt that this is afilm of immense stature. We are delighted to be involved."

Myriad's current slate includes: Kinseystarring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney; The Deal starring ChristianSlater and Selma Blair; the ensemble family comedy Eulogystarring Hank Azaria, Ray Romano and Debra Winger; and the supernaturalthriller Trauma with Colin Firth and Mena Suvari.