Donnie Yen has landed the lead role in director Peter Chan's new martial-arts film "Wu Xia" (provisionally "Swordsman"), the Beijing Times reports.

Takeshi Kaneshiro, better known to Chinese audiences as Jincheng Wu, has been confirmed as Yen's co-star.

Gong Li has been offered a role but has not yet accepted it, while Chan says a rumor of actress Tang Wei being involved is not true.

Chan reckons there hasn't been a good Chinese sword film since Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2000 but he hopes to offer some unique sword-fighting scenes in his movie.

"Wu Xia" will start shooting at the end of the month in southwest China's Yunnan Province.