The Battle of Red Cliff (film)

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The Battle of Red Cliff
Directed by	John Woo
Produced by	Terence Chang Daxing Zhang
Written by	Luo Guanzhong (novel)
Starring	Chow Yun-Fat Tony Leung Chiu Wai Andy Lau Ken Watanabe Chi-ling Lin
Distributed by	China Film Group Corporation Lion Rock Productions
Country	China
Budget	$36,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

This article is about a film, for the historical battle see Battle of Red Cliffs

The Battle of Red Cliff (Chinese: 赤壁之戰) is the highly anticipated John Woo film based on the events of Three Kingdoms period, specifically the Battle of Red Cliffs, as portrayed in historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. The movie will be filmed in Hebei, China and is expected to be released sometime in late 2007 or early 2008, possibly being used to help promote the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

With an estimated budget of $36,000,000 (making it the most expensive work of the Chinese film industry in history) it will be John Woo's most ambitious move yet, perhaps producing his magnum opus. Some critics are concerned that such a high profile production will be difficult for Woo considering it marks his return to Chinese filmmaking following a wave of American movies.

The main parts assigned so far are for Chow Yun-Fat to play as Liu Bei, the leader of the Kingdom of Shu, Tony Leung Chiu Wai to play as Zhuge Liang, the strategist and mastermind of the Kingdom of Shu, Andy Lau to play as Zhou Yu, the strategist of the Kingdom of Wu, Chi-ling Lin to play as Xiao Qiao, the wife of Zhou Yu, and Ken Watanabe to play as Cao Cao, the ambitious leader of the Kingdom of Wei, who will be portrayed as the villain. Questions have been raised by critics as to the casting of Ken Watanabe, a Japanese actor, in an ancient Chinese film. When questioned about it, John Woo admits to the inaccuracy but claims it shall not affect the outcome of the movie.