Must See: 9-Minute Cannes Promo for John Woo’s Red Cliff

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 26, 2008

While the Cannes Film Festival officially ended yesterday, we should see a fair amount of coverage stretch on into the latter parts of this week, as there is still a ton of buzz and hot assets floating around. One film that showed off a promo reel during Cannes last week was John Woo’s $80 million dollar Chinese period epic Red Cliff, which stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Lust, Caution) and Wei Zhao (Shaolin Soccer). A 9-minute promo reel for the film has popped up online, which can be viewed below:

Red Cliff is based on the story of the Battle of Red Cliffs, otherwise known as the Battle of Chibi, which was a decisive battle in the time just prior to the period of the Three Kingdoms in China. It came in the years following the crumbling of the Han Dynasty, which had ruled China for over four centuries. The story upon which the film is directly based follows two rival warlords who must join together to fend off an invading warlord and his million-man army.

The film itself, which will release in many international territories just in time to lead up to the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August, is a 4 hour epic broken down into two films, much like Stephen Soderbergh’s epic Che. No plans have been announced yet for a release in the United States, but we will surely let you know when we find out.

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