is rapidly becoming one of the hottest new directors in Hollywood. The Shanghai-born actress-turned-film-maker, who is being honoured at the ongoing Sundance Film Festival as one of the 10 directors to watch, is in final negotiations to direct a remake of Gilles Mimouni's French thriller Appartement.
Chen, 38, will be paid more than US$1 million - her biggest pay day to date - to supervise the adaptation of the remake, which will be called The Apartment, in a deal she has thrashed out with Lakeshore Pictures.
She is replacing top Hollywood movie maker Joel Schumacher, who quit as director just before the film was ready to go into production.
Making the film has been a priority for Lakeshore co-chairman Tom Rosenberg and company president Gary Lucchesi since they saw the original at the 1997 Sundance Festival and bought the rights to make an English-language version.
Their plans had to be delayed once Schumacher dropped out.
At one point, Mummy star Brendan Fraser and then Freddie Prinz Jnr were close to being cast in the lead. Now it is unclear who will land the starring role.
Chen is very quickly making a name for her talents behind the camera since drawing critical acclaim for her directing debut movie Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which was controversially filmed on the mainland.
She got her first break as a Hollywood movie director making Autumn in New York, which stars Richard Gere and Winona Ryder.
Word is that Chen did an impressive job directing that movie, which is a Lakeshore/MGM production and will be released soon.
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