Red Cliff (Chi Bi) rides its way into U.S. theaters soon
Magnet, a sub division under Magnolia, has scooped up the rights for the latest John Woo movie, Red Cliff. The upcoming war drama has been passed around the negotiation table for quite some time until finally landing in the hands of this company. The running time is 2 1/2 hours, despite the fact that the original cut of the film is separated into two films. The film has already made its waves overseas, already raking in around 50 million in Japan alone.
In Autumn of 208 AD, 100,000 peasants fled with their beloved leader Liu Bei from Cao Cao’s million man army. With the aid of heroes like Zhao Yun (the subject of the new “Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon” film) and Zhang Fei, they escape across the Great River (Chinese ‘Yangtze’) to take refuge with Sun Quan, the leader of the south. As Cao Cao prepares his huge navy to invade southern China and destroy them both, geniuses like Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu devise a grand strategy. They hope to destroy Cao Cao’s 10,000 ships with fire upon the river, but must first trick Cao Cao into chaining his ships together, and then change the direction of China’s famous and freezing North Wind. While these two struggle to put aside the rivalry between Liu Bei and Sun Quan’s forces, they must hatch their legendary schemes before Cao Cao is ready.
Red Cliff will make its way into theaters in the fall, following it after with a DVD release that will include the film being shown in its entirety in its original two halves
