Hong Kong - Hong Kong actress Carina Lau starts work in Chongqing next month, playing the late former Taiwan first lady Madam Chiang Kai-shek in a historical epic, reported Hong Kong's The Sun newspaper.

Cairo Declaration, a mainland production, centres on the Chiangs' visit to Eqypt where Mdm Chiang, also known as Soong May-ling, won praise serving as a translator for Chiang at the World War II 1943 Cairo Conference.

Joan Chen plays her sister Soong Ching-ling, or Madame Sun Yat-sen, and Chinese actor Hu Jun stars as a code-breaker. Location filming will take place in China and the United States.

Lau, who had publicly expressed her wish to play Mdm Chiang two years ago, said of the former politician: "She was outstanding. Before I accepted the role, I had been interested in books and documentaries about her."

She said she did not know who would play Chiang. "I can't wait to know. Actually, Tony does resemble Chiang," she joked, referring to her husband, actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

Vivian Wu played Soong May-ling in the 1997 Hong Kong film The Soong Sisters directed by Mabel Cheung. Maggie Cheung won a Best Actress prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards for playing Soong Ching-ling.

Soong May-ling died in New York in 2003, aged 106.