From Nolan to Nanking? Directed by the legendary Zhang Yimou, the Oscar winner is the first major Westerner to appear in a Chinese movie with Rape of Nanking epic "The Flowers of War." In the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter, days after "The Dark Knight Rises" filming wrapped, the pair discuss what it means for business in China, and if the language barrier mattered: "Yimou actually wanted Christian Slater but ended up with me," jokes Bale.
In the current issue of The Hollywood Reporter, senior film reporter Pamela McClintock sat down with the notoriously press-shy Christian Bale, 37, and famed 60-year-old Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern), who together just finished making the most expensive Chinese movie ever, the historical epic, The Flowers of War. The movie centers on Bale as a mourning American mortician who seeks refuge in a Catholic cathedral and finds himself in the middle of a war, in a story based on the Rape of Nanking, the brutal invasion of Nanking by the Japanese army in 1937. The movie will be released for one week in America in late December; internationally it opens Dec. 16. In this exclusive interview, the men, who clearly like each other enormously, reveal how an American actor came to be the star of a Chinese major motion picture, Bale's 20-year fascination with the director, and how they overcame cultural and language barriers.
