French director Phillipe Muyl will direct Chinese actress Li Xiaoran and frequent art-house film star Qin Hao in a Chinese-French co-production of The Nightingale.

The film is a family drama revolving around an old man and his granddaughter.

Li Xiaoran and Qin Hao play a couple too busy to give enough care to their daughter. Veteran actor Li Baotian plays the grandfather.

Muyl is best known to Chinese audiences as director of The Butterfly, another story about an old man and a child.

Shooting has started recently in Beijing. The film will be released in June 2013.