Richard Gere has signed up to star in an upcoming thriller from Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau.

The Flock, Lau's debut English language feature, will star Gere as a federal agent on a mission to track down a missing girl he believes to be connected to the sex offender he is investigating. Meanwhile, he must train up his young female replacement.

The movie is planned for a late 2006 release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Gere is currently filming The Hoax in which he portrays author Clifford Irving, who wrote a controversial bogus biography of Howard Hughes in the 1970.