Guest sevenhooks Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 from imdb's front page... Producers of an $80-million Chinese historical epic film claim that Chow Yun-Fat, who was to have starred in it, made excessive demands that were rejected by the movie's Hollywood insurer. Chow later announced that he was withdrawing from the film because he had received the script too late for him to prepare adequately for his role. The film, Red Cliff, is to be directed by John Woo. Woo's business partner, Terrence Chang, told Sina.com, a Chinese news website, that Chow had demanded the addition of 73 clauses. "Many exceed industry standards," Chang added. Chow later told the Associated Press that the contractual provisions were based on a "Hollywood-style contract," and remarked, "Maybe everyone hasn't gotten used to Hollywood contracts." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DragonMa55 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Oh dear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest monk sante Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 That's what you call "keeping it real"! :lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jirpy100 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 To be negative, does this really surprise anyone? John Woo's been making this epic for a couple of years now, and now I find out they still haven't started shooting. Maybe the big spenders don't wanna take a chance with Woo doing something different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yakuza954 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 This is surprising because Woo and Chow Yun Fat are supposed to be good friends and the biggest draw for this flick was that both were reuniting again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I believe Hollywood has probably spoiled Chow by now, he isn't going to work for peanuts and no perks these days like he did in HK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Beat TG Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 once again big news... according to monkeypeaches, Tony Leung Chiu has joined the cast again but it's not known if he will play Chow's role or if he will play the role he originally was to play before his departure. Chow will not be in Red Cliff but at least one big name is attached to Red Cliff:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest monk sante Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 To be negative, does this really surprise anyone? John Woo's been making this epic for a couple of years now, and now I find out they still haven't started shooting. Maybe the big spenders don't wanna take a chance with Woo doing something different? Your probably right, it's been a while since Woo has made a blockbuster type of movie. Some times I wonder if he got too much credit for his older work action wise. (The Killer, Hardboiled and A Better Tomorrow 2). Ching Siu Tung and Tsui Hark didn't get the credit they deserve IMO. :smokin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Don't forget Tung Wai and Kuo Chui. I think Hard Target proved that Woo could do awesome action sequences away from Hong Kong but he's be hampered ever since by studio and censor interference and what seems like a determination to move away from what he's best at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest D1 Ma Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 In Hard Target he was basically rehashing his old ideas. He once said that he did Blackjack because it wasn't for a major studio and he could have more freedom. And the movie sucked anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest limubai2000 Posted April 20, 2007 Share Posted April 20, 2007 Chow said this - According to a statement Chow Yun-Fat sent to Sina.com, Chow resigned from John Woo�s The Battle of Red Cliff last Friday not because of some unrealistic demands from him. Chow received the screenplay just one week before and the production had already begun. This gave him very little time to prepare for his role as he had to deliver his lines in Mandarin. Chow said he had agreed to take a pay cut for playing his role. Also, he did not believe the US-based insurance company played any role in his departure. Chow also hoped this incident would not affect his friendship with John Woo and producer Terence Chang. Whilst Chang says this (bold is mine) - Producer Chang made an emergency interview with Sina.com last night, to provide his explanation of why Chow Yun-Fat left The Battle of Red Cliff. He said both John Woo and him were very upset about Chow�s quitting. Woo has said many times that he wanted to work with Chow Yun-Fat again and several years back Chow had agreed to play the role of General Zhou Yu, which was tailored for him. Chang said some of the financial backers and distributors did raised the issue of how could Chow play a young general but Woo and him insisted that Chow was the right choice. Chang said the real reason for letting Chow go was some conditions demanded by Chow and his lawyer could not be accepted by the production and the US-based issuance company. Many of these conditions were against the usual industrial practice, both in China and in Hollywood. Chang said Chow was given the screenplay last year and the one he received last week was actually a version revised based on Chow�s comments. Chow�s pay, more than he earned from his last four projects, includes US$500 millions plus a percentage of worldwide box-office revenue, according to Chang. Chow asked the 500 mills to be paid as down payment, according to his rule for taking any independent project (project produced by non-Hollywood studios.) Only after Chang�s begging, Chow later agreed to drop the down payment to 50% and the other 50% to be paid when the production was halfway through. I have a hard time believing Chang on this one when he is throwing around numbers like that! It's insane, 5, 15, or 50 million i could believe but not 500! % of worldwide gross? WTF? I'm gonna side with CYF on this one as I've followed this production somewhat closely and I had a bad feeling about it from the start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BKarza Posted April 20, 2007 Share Posted April 20, 2007 Woo isn't like most directors when it comes to his action being done. He is less like Chang Cheh there and more like Lu Chun Ku and Tsui Hark. He themes and contructs and sets up his own action. He's right there. The ADs do the physical aspect. You'll notice that no matter who the AD is, those 3 had a style particular to them. They didn't go off to shoot love scenes while the 2nd unit was off shooting the carnage. Tsiu Hark had more to do with the earlier Cinema City work. I believe it all came apart during The Killer or A Better Tomorrow 2. One of the reasons TH did ABT3. So from The Killer on... He did surround himself with very capable people in front of and behind the camera and he shot longer than just about anyone else but Jack Chan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wudawg Posted April 22, 2007 Share Posted April 22, 2007 Anyway you look at it, it's a disappointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 US$500M :rollin :rollin :rollin :rollin :rollin If that quote is accurate........ Chang is lying his ass off. Hard Target reused the shooting thru the glass bit from Hard-Boiled (because Woo said it could be done better) but the rest seems fresh and crisp to me. Rehash? Not in the slightest. I think people just diss this movie cause it's Van Damme. If it has starred Nicholas Cage everyone would drool over it as one of the best American pure-action movies ever made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmungus Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 "most expensive chinese movie project to date with a budget of approx. US$70M" thats what i`d always read. i suppose, CYF`s salary included. they will be VERY happy if it makes $500M (terminator 2, the last crusade or the empire strikes back made that kinda money at the box office) they wont be hittin that mark, but it will be interesting to see (aside from how the flick turns out and how much im gonna like it- or not) its success worldwide. romance of the 3 kingdoms, the novel its apparently based upon, is the most popular all over asia (or so i heard) and available in english as well. plus the name john woo generates a bit of a hype in most parts of the world on top of it. epic in proportions, theres enough material for sequel(s) galore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Elhcay Posted July 11, 2008 Member Share Posted July 11, 2008 Very well thought-out and carefully planned, with good attention to detail yet without calling for too much attention. Good script, if a bit too long, and that's only half of it. Perhaps, after Tsui Hark, with Seven Swords, bucked the trend of the perfectly spotlessly clean and over beautiful but generally empty wuxia films since Hero, more directors are opting for the similar kind of gritty realism, and Red Cliff is no exception. Everything here is done on the more realistic level, no over-the-topness (give and take some elements of movie fantasy), and thankfully, John Woo didn't try to make everyone smeared in coal and mud all the time like Warlords. Brilliantly laid out strategies. And good build up. Wasn't expecting any jokes, but the film is peppered with humour throughout. Good casting choice on the whole. The bravery and invincibility of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Zi Long are amply shown, except they lack the martial artistry to carry the invincibility part more convincingly. Never seen any Chinese movie of such massive scale, scope and grandeur, such magnificent and wide, sweeping shots of Chinese landscapes in copious amount, huge stockades, sheer number of extras and warships (probably digitally filled up at some point), the only Asian movie that can rival Lord of the Rings in terms of production values. That must be where all those money went to. (Condolences to the stuntman who lost his life while filming setting the ships ablaze scene which was to be shown in the second half - the movie ends somewhere after the first battle when Liu Bei and Sun Quan form an alliance against Cao Cao.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member David Rees Posted July 13, 2008 Member Share Posted July 13, 2008 Looking forward to seeing this a lot, i hope we dont have to wait too long for the 2nd part to be released. found a cool original movie poster here. RED CLIFF MOVIE POSTER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dyenboy Posted July 16, 2008 Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 The movie will take alot out of Chow yun-fat and I think he is honest and don't think he is corrupted by Hollywood. I don't think John Woo is really that good, he has made some great scenes back in the day, but today era, he is dated. When was the last blockbuster John Woo did, besides for MI: 2 and that wasn't even that good. He is good, compared to Hollywood but in China, he doesn't stand a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ben Posted July 17, 2008 Member Share Posted July 17, 2008 Really looking forward to seeing this film sometime whether in cinema or on DVD. Dunno if you guys know about this or if it's posted elsewhere, but Chow Yun Fat and Woo apparently have another project in the works. The film is "THE RED CIRCLE", which is a remake of the Alain Delon film "Cercle rouge, Le" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965377/ No definite information on the film at this time though apart from that fact that Chow Yun Fat seems to have committed to it and Alain Delon himself may also appear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member SamuraiDana Posted July 17, 2008 Member Share Posted July 17, 2008 I'm not in the mood for a big epic from Woo. What I really want to see him do is a Hollywood remake of HARD-BOILED with guns that run out of bullets after you use up the 15 in the clip. Starring Jason Statham and...who else? Mark Wahlberg? (I know, I know, but who else IS there?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted July 17, 2008 Member Share Posted July 17, 2008 I'm not in the mood for a big epic from Woo. What I really want to see him do is a Hollywood remake of HARD-BOILED with guns that run out of bullets after you use up the 15 in the clip. Starring Jason Statham and...who else? Mark Wahlberg? (I know, I know, but who else IS there?) You just described a recurring nightmare i've been having:eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tantheman Posted July 18, 2008 Member Share Posted July 18, 2008 I don't think its fair to say Woo is outdated, he's obviously an immensely talented technician and artist who can adapt to any filmic climate. I for one am really looking forward to this one as Woo is my favourite director and this is his dream project. If anything, its gonna look really good. For pure aesthetic power, atmosphere and action, its hard to beat the best of Woo. In response to the Cercle Rouge remake, isn't that a Johnnie To project? Thats what I heard. It has the capacity to be great also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mark187 Posted July 18, 2008 Member Share Posted July 18, 2008 it is being directed by Johnnie To, starring potentially Chow Yun-fat, Liam Neeson, Tim Roth, and Orlando Bloom. on imdb though, John Woo and Brett Ratner are listed as executive producers. Brett Ratner??!! it's listed as a Hong Kong film though, only to be shot in English, and Milkyway is listed as the production company. although I've heard that there is some US financing to this as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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