Source: Variety

Variety columnist, Michael Fleming reports that Chinese star Gong Li will first play the female lead as a crime figure of Chinese and Cuban descent in the Michael Mann directed Miami Vice for Universal.

She will then play Lady Murasaki, the Japanese woman who teaches cultural sophistication to a young Hannibal Lecter in Behind the Mask, the Peter Webber directed fifth installment of the Lecter franchise scripted by "The Silence of the Lambs" author Thomas Harris.

In reference to Miami Vice, director Michael Mann described her role as that of the chief financial officer of a transnational criminal enterprise. "The part of Isabella required psychological complexity and beauty, both of which she has," he said.

While for Behind the Mask director Peter Webber was looking for an exotic new face for the pic that shows how Hannibal the Cannibal developed his sense of culture as well as a taste for human flesh.

The film follows a young Hannibal who escapes from an orphanage and runs away to Paris, he takes refuge at the home of his uncle. His wife, Lady Murasaki, becomes the sociopath's teacher.

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