The World's Nicest Japanese Man*, Ken Watanabe, has signed on to join John Cusack and Gong Li in Shanghai, a wartime thriller from director Mikael Hafstrom.
Set in 1941, after the Japanese took control of Shanghai but shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the War against them, the plot sees an American (Cusack) travel to the city to find that an old friend there has been killed. While investigating his friend's death and dealing with the corruption he finds in the city, he falls in love (we're guessing with Gong rather than Watanabe) and discovers a great secret that his own government is involved in hiding.
The film is due to shoot in Shanghai next month, from a script by Hossein Amini. He's the pen behind The Wings of the Dove, The Four Feathers and Jude, so expect something rather literary to result.
We don't know this for sure, not having met every Japanese male. But we're positive he's in the top 10.