MIAMI VICE - LI AND CUSACK TAKE SHANGHAI TRIP

Miami Vice star Gong Li and John Cusack are in talks to star in the Weinstein Company's upcoming period drama Shanghai.

1408 director Mikael Hafstrom is likely to reunite with Cusack, with Hossein Amini scripting, according to Variety.

The Grosse Pointe Blank star is in negotiations to play an American returning to a corrupt, pre-Pearl Harbour Shanghai, only to discover the murder of his friend.

And Curse of the Golden Flower actress Li is already attached to play the local with whom Cusack falls in love, as a wider scandal involving the US government emerges.

Cusack had been scheduled to star in Jan de Bont's action flick Stopping Power, but the production has been halted due to the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike.

Phoenix Pictures' Mike Medavoy and Barry Mendel are to produce the project, with Medavoy having worked with Harvey Weinstein to try and develop Shanghai as a follow-up for John Madden in the wake of Shakespeare in Love.

Medavoy also produced Holes, Stealth, All the King's Men, Miss Potter and recent crime thriller Zodiac.