John Woo on “Red Cliff” and “The Flying Tigers”
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An interesting article from JoBlo.com (ha), interviewing director John Woo about a couple of his upcoming war movie projects. The biggest is "Red Cliff"...
RED CLIFF is the most expensive Chinese film ever made, and as far as I'm concerned, worth every penny. This story of the Battle of Red Cliff is very familiar to Asian audiences, but new to most Americans. In the year 208 C.E. (A.D.), Prime Minister-turned General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) gets permission from the Han dynasty Emperor to begin a campaign to crush the two warlords ruling the south. Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen) must work together to fight off this threat from the North. Liu Bei's brilliant stratigest Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro, who looks shockingly like Orlando Bloom) joins forces with Sun Quan's trusted advisor Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) and, with the aid of Princess Sun Shangxiang, (Wei Zhao) fight to save their land.
A FIVE HOUR version? Gack! Wonder if we'll see the long cut here in the states, ever! Also of note is another project he's working on, another telling of the "Flying Tigers" story, although I bet this has quite a different take than the John Wayne classic...
I do have another one. It's called THE FLYING TIGER. THE FLYING TIGER is about, in WWII, there was an American volunteer group of pilot fighters who are helping the China government against the Japanese. Very special true story. The whole story is about the friendship between the Chinese and the American[s]. They work together to win the war, so it's another war movie again. [laughs]
There's a lot more in the interview, check it out here:
Link: INT: John Woo (photo above from the same)
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I don’t expect much from “The Flying Tiger.” Remember John Woo made the terrible movie “Windtalkers.” A movie about the Navajo code talkers should have made a great film, but Woo is a hack. He couldn’t help himself and had to embelish the story by adding over the top and unrealistic battle scenes in the end. Another hack who tried to make a serious WW2 film was Michael Bay with “Pearl Harbor.” The directors who make these quick-cut action flicks can’t help themselves when the take on real subjects. They think the real stories are just too boring so they have to add all the flashy super hero antics. I have the same fear about Lucas’ “Red Tails.”