Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Top News
Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day.
Subscribe
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
Entertainment
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Film
Music
People
Television
Arts
Industry
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
Your View
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
Your View
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
John Woo on a new mission: boosting Chinese films
Tue Jun 9, 2009 9:31am EDT
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Belinda Goldsmith
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hollywood film director John Woo has returned to his roots to bring a traditional Chinese story to the big screen, and hopes this will garner new interest for Chinese films globally.
Woo, well known for his choreographed action movies such as "Mission: Impossible II," said "Red Cliff" aims to convince young Chinese that movies don't need a Hollywood stamp to be good and to prove the merits of Chinese films to Western audiences.
"Red Cliff," the most expensive Asian-financed movie made with a $80 million budget, is about the ancient Chinese battle of that name. It is Woo's first Chinese-language film since the 1992 thriller "Hard-Boiled" and his first U.S. release in six years.
Woo said the scale of the movie made it an epic with action and romance akin to "Troy," "Gladiator" or even "Lawrence of Arabia" that should appeal to an international audience.
"I wanted to prove that in China we have the ability and the talent to make big movies like Hollywood but adding something that's never been seen before," Woo told Reuters on the sidelines of the 56th Sydney Film Festival where "Red Cliff" is showing.
"I wanted to make a movie that would appeal to people all over the world, that would bring people together because even though we come from different cultures, we have a lot in common."
Woo, 63, who has directed over 26 films, is well known for his Hollywood movies such as "Face/Off" and "Broken Arrow." He is renowned in Asia for gangster dramas and action movies including "The Killer" and "A Better Tomorrow."
But Woo said he has struggled over the years to unite his two audiences, so with "Red Cliff" he set out to make a movie that rose above cultural and historical barriers.
However, the movie has had different versions released in Asia and elsewhere.
In Asia, the film was released in two parts, totally four hours in length, but for Western markets Woo cut the sub-titled movie back to a single film running for 2- hours.
"This was hard to do but trimming the movie has not changed the story or the spirit of the movie at all," said Woo. "But I would not do it that way again. It was too hard."
Woo said financing the film, despite its high price tag, had been easy and the movie had already made a good profit.
His own production company, Lion Rock Productions, was joined by China Film Group Corp, Taiwan's CMC Entertainment, Japan's Avex Entertainment, China's Chengtian Entertainment and Korea's Showbox.
"Everybody loves the story and most people in Asia have read the book ("Romance of the Three Kingdoms") on which it is based. They also had a lot of confidence in me," he said.
The film is set in the year 208 in the dying days of the Han dynasty, culminating in the battle of Red Cliff in which 2,000 ships were burned. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
Yahoo!
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Key hearing set in Anna Nicole Smith death case
also on reuters
Blog: New Apple iPhone features get under your skin
Rock festivals fighting financial washout
Global Luxury Summit: Japan pearls in peril amid recession
More Entertainment News
Key hearing set in Anna Nicole Smith death case
Letterman, CBS close to deal for 3 more years
Thai police will know how Carradine died in one month
| Video
Katee Sackhoff to co-star on "24"
Swearing TV chef rebuked by Australian PM
More Entertainment News...
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
U.S. war funding bill brims with unrelated extras
U.S. to allow 10 banks to repay TARP money: report
Apple halves iPhone to $99, trims Mac prices | Video
Chrysler's Bankruptcy Hiccup
Republicans to counter Dems' U.S. financial reforms
Fiat to stay course on Chrysler despite court delay
Most firms unaware of Web domain changes: survey
UPDATE 2-Citigroup $58 bln stock swap coming this week
Air France to replace sensors at once: union | Video
CEO forgot to tell wife about pay cut
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Air France search continues
North Korea ups the stakes
Obama expedites stimulus
Families win Omagh bomb civil suit
Carradine mystery continues
Centre-right dominates EU Elections
Tokyo's top dog skateboards
Search continues for U.S. climber
Rally after attacks on Indians
Bodies from Air France crash found
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
We want to hear from you
Join the Reuters Consumer Insight Panel and help us get to know you better
Please take a moment to complete our survey
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Labs |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.