Over the weekend a 9-minute Cannes promo reel for John Woo’s Red Cliff showed up online. The 4-hour 2-episode $80 million epic adaptation of The Battle of Red Cliffs is the biggest budget Chinese film ever to be greenlit. Red Cliff stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Hu Jun, Lin Chi-ling and Zhao Wei. The first of the two films is scheduled to be released in July in select territories. I’m not exactly sure when the movie will be released in the States or if it will be cut down into one release. We’ll keep you updated. Watch the video footage after the jump. Looks pretty epic if you ask me.
The film tells the story of the decisive battle during the period of the Three Kingdoms in China. Centuries ago, the fate of China was decided by a single conflict. Two kingdoms at odds with an imperial empire. What they wanted was freedom. What they faced was a battle that would change the corse of history.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:26 am
i was expecting guns blazing. it does look pretty epic.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
If they’ll release it here, chances are that it’ll be in condensed to a 3 hour long movie. Though I really want to be wrong about this.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Regardless you’ll still be able to find this on Blu ray or DVD at least as it came out over there so there’s no real worry.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
All i have to say about this is….wow. This movie i will definitely see.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
For those of you that have played any of the “Dynasty Warriors” series of games for the Playstation or X-box, this will all be very familiar too you. I for one can’t wait for some actual talent to portray the story of the Three Kingdoms. (The voice acting in the games is atrocious!)
June 7th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
If it is the best 9 minutes, it is going to be a very long film. Westerners may need to do some research about the tactics used by Zhugi Liang in the film before watching it. Hope John Woo won’t be ruined by big money from China this time. An other grand project by China to raise national pride.