Can someone enlighten me?
There are so many rumours out there, that Woo will made “The War of the Red Cliff” in 2007 and that Jet Li and Chow Yun fut will be in it.
How sure is this?
And will the movie be about the book “The Three Kingdoms”?
Does someone read it?
EDIT:
From: Dark Horizons: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050208i.php
Battle of Red Cliff
John Woo just made another trip to Beijing for the preproduction of US$ 50 million historical drama. During his staying in the city, Woo talked to screenwriter Zou Jingzhi, cinematographer Gu Changwei (“Farewell My Concubine”), costume and production designer Tim Yip (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), according to Chinese paper Nanfang Daily. Dong Ping, the president of Beijing based Asian Union Film and Media, has assured that Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li would be in the project. The script will be done in March and the shooting might begin by the end of this year.
Here, i found this, i had heard about it but didnt know what it was called. John Woo has returned to China! Hooray!
Leung Chiu-Wai and Ken Watanabe Join John Woo’s THE BATTLE OF RED CLIFF? (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)
July 22, 2005
According to the Chinese media, the answer is yes. Reportedly, Ken Watanabe will play Cao Cao, the northern warlord chased Liu Bei, played by Chow Yun-Fat, to the south, and Leung Chiu-Wai will play Zhuge Liang, a strategist and the closes advisor to Liu Bei, who helped Liu to unit with southern warlord Sun Quan to defeat Cao’s army with a decisive battle in Red Cliff. Screenwriter Zou Jingzhi has completed the third draft of the script, which has yet got John Woo’s final approval.
Some interesting news (picked them up at www.asianmovienews.com), so John Woo isn’t doing a Wu-Xia-Film:
[quote]During an interview with Sina.com, John Woo briefly talked about his upcoming historical war drama The Battle of Red Cliff.
The real Battle of Red Cliff occurred in 208, in which the Han Dynasty reached its final years and warlord Cao Cao just took control of the northern part of China after wiped out other warlords in the North. He marched to the south in attempt to unify the entire empire. The relatively weak warlord Liu Bei was quickly defeated and was forced to run south. Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to meet warlord Sun Quan and set up a coalition against Cao Cao. Their combined force of about 50,000 men confronted with Cao Cao’s army with tens thousands of men and a strong fleet In Red Cliff, across Long River (Yangtze River). In October, the coalition force launched a surprise attack with a small number of fireships. Under heavy wind, Cao Cao’s battleships and camps along the shore was easily burnt to ashes, and Cao Cao was forced to retreat to the north.
In Romance of Three Kingdoms, a 14th / 15th Century fiction by Luo Guanzhong, the Battle of Red Cliff is retold in a dramatized fashion. In the novel, Cao Cao is ambitious and treacherous, Liu Bei is kind but weak in will and mind, Zhuge Liang is extremely smart, and Zhou Yu is a young and arrogant commander consumed by his jealousy of Zhuge Lian’s wisdom. The upcoming movie will be based on the novel but Woo wants to change something. Cao Cao will not be treacherous, Liu Bei will not be weak and Zhou Yu will not be jealous of anyone.
Woo said the war epic will contain many large war scenes with much focus on the battle on Long River. He also said he was not interested in making people flying in midair in The Battle of Red Cliff and it would be laughable if it turned out to be a martial-art film.[/quote]
Shooting will begin later this month. Finally something is happening.
This is pretty old, I heard this like 2 years ago.
Three Kingdoms is my favorite Chinese novel. It’s been made into comic books and video games. The Playstation 2 game Dynasty Warriors is an adaption but the video game changes the story a bit.
[quote=“Hung Fist”]
Shooting will begin later this month. Finally something is happening.
[/quote]
Or maybe not. According to latest information the production will begin in september
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/349/2006/02/20/44@52946.htm
http://www.kfccinema.com/
CRIENGLISH have reported that John Woo’s upcoming historical drama "The Battle of Red Cliff " will not start filming until 2007, according to producer Terence Chang, with the aim of releasing it just before the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
The film is now on its eighth script draft, with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” writer Wang Hui-Ling having recently joined the team. So far, the only confirmed casting is that of Chow Yun-Fat, though Liu Ye, recently in “Jasmine Women” is apparently in talks to join the film after producers were impressed not only with his acting skills, but with his height (1.86 meters).
A few details have emerged regarding the film’s planned battle sequences, which are said to include “the burning of 2,000 boats with horses jumping around on them” and another sequence involving “a booby-trapped battleship”.
With his name still attached to a number of other projetcs, including an adaptation of the “Spyhunter” videogame franchise, it is unclear whether “Red Cliff” will be Woo’s next film proper, though whatever happens, it seems fans will have a while to wait before his trademark slo-mo blood and heroism hit the big screen again.
Edit:
LOL, after reading Angels topic, I realized that I made one before and found it…so merged ;D ;D
Funny thing is, that I called my topic War of …instead of Battle of… (I just changed the topic of my old one to the name Angels made)
Latest news
There will be two versions of the movie:
- 2½ version for the western markets
- 4 hour version, which will be released in two parts (Vol.1 and Vol.2), for asian markets.
the budget is about US$75 million.
[size=80]- <LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.kfccinema.com/xtemplex/index … opic=13308”>http://www.kfccinema.com/xtemplex/index.php?showtopic=13308</LINK_TEXT>[/size]
First Tony Leung left the film, then Chow Yun Fat left the film… and now Leung returns to the film (probably playing Chow’s part)…
I wish Chow would’ve stayed on…oh well. That sucks that there will be only a 2 and half hour version in the US, but nonetheless I can’t wait for it.
Sweet.
I wish he would’ve just kept his damn role before.
And now he’s out again
According to long time John Woo producer Terence Chang, Chow Yun-Fat was never chosen to return to the project after his initial drop out from Battle of Red Cliff.
From a quote taken by the Associated press Chang stated, “Chow is definitely out. His dropping out of our film caused us tremendous scheduling problems … If he rejoins us, I am afraid he might create ill feelings among all the crew and all the other main actors.”
Trailer:
<LINK_TEXT text=“http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/first-t … f-arrives/”>http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/first-trailer-for-john-woos-battle-of-red-cliff-arrives/</LINK_TEXT>
Apart from the bad quality of the trailer…It looks fucking killer!! 
Can’t wait to see it! 8)
