Zhang Ziyi impressed audiences worldwide with an electrifying performance in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The talented actress is expected to play the main lead in the film version of Memoirs Of A Geisha, the Arthur Golden novel. The male lead is said to be played by Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai). Directed by Rob Marshall, Memoirs is also expected to star Far East superstars Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh and Koji Yakusho.

The Columbia Pictures/DreamWorks/Spyglass Entertainment film will show Watanabe as the high-powered executive with whom young Sayuri falls in love. 

Ziyi will play Sayuri, the orphan who comes from a fishing village. She is sent to the city to learn how to become a geisha, which changes her life.

Marshall told Hollywood Reporter: 'We could not be more excited about the extraordinary cast that we have in place for Memoirs Of A Geisha. We are adapting a beloved piece of literature that has become a worldwide sensation, which made it important to me to assemble a cast with a prestigious intnernational profile. I cannot wait to begin production this fall.'

Shooting for the film begins next month in Los Angeles and Japan.