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]