Hugh's that girl ... Zhang Ziyi. Photograph: John Schultz/Reuters
Zhang Ziyi must represent an irritating combination for Hollywood producers: Huge star in the world's most populous and fastest-growing nation, rubbish English.
It didn't stop her being cast as a stereotypical ass-kicking Asian villain-babe in Rush Hour II of course, but that was more than a small waste of the actor's considerable acting talent.
Now Working Title, those purveyors of annoyingly entertaining Brit rom-coms, have come up with an ingenious way to harness Ziyi's considerable fan-base without having to wait for the actor to learn English. They are planning to cast her as a Chinese film-maker trying to get Brit actor Hugh Grant to appear in one of her movies.
Their relationship is conducted entirely through a translator, who also happens to have a romantic interest in Grant. And so, Ziyi's lack of English becomes the focal point for the comedy, and a positive rather than a negative. Clever, huh?
