Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a tidbit on the goings-on of John Woo from The Hollywood Reporter. It seems that he has 2 projects that'll take him back to China, one an English language film to shoot there and the other, a film called THE WAR OF THE RED CLIFF, to be shot in his native Chinese language. This is nothing but good news to me. He's had some good flicks in the US (I love me my FACE/OFF and if it wasn't for BROKEN ARROW I'd be writing for HARRY KNOWLES' COOL NEWS PLACE or something), but when he misses... good god does he miss. I'm happy to see him return to his element. Drink up that Chinese water and get you some of that fine cuisine. Power up, bud! You got another KILLER in you! I know it! Here are the details on the two flicks:
John Woo is going back to China to shoot a neo-noir thriller for Bristol Bay Prods.
The untitled project will be filmed in Beijing and will be produced in association with StudioCanal. Woo also will produce with Terence Chang through their production company, Lion Rock Prods. Caroline Macaulay of Lion Rock will be executive producer.
One of the appeals for the filmmakers was the chance to shoot in China and explore the country's seemingly contradictory duality of being a communist-run nation with a capitalist impetus.
The story involves an American visiting China who becomes entangled in a clash between the communist government and the underworld that is fueling the underground economy. Don MacPherson is writing the screenplay.
Bristol Bay is financing the movie, which will be in English.
CAA-repped Woo is prepping "The War of the Red Cliff," which will be his first movie shot in China and in the Chinese language since the Hong Kong action director broke into Hollywood in 1993 with "Hard Target." His U.S. oeuvre includes "Broken Arrow," "Face/Off" and "Mission: Impossible 2" as well as "Paycheck" and "Windtalkers."
Bristol Bay is the sister company to Walden Media and part of the Anschutz Film Group. Bristol Bay produced and financed "Ray" and "Sahara."
