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John Woo Returning to WWII with The Flying Tiger Heroes

by Alex Billington
July 6, 2009
Source: SlashFilm

Chinese director John Woo, who decided to remain in China after finishing his two-part epic Red Cliff, is gearing up to start a new project tentatively titled Flying Tiger Heroes. SlashFilm reports that Woo held a press conference in China to announce the new project, which will have a budget of roughly $161 million (although that seems a bit much for a Chinese production). The film will be about The Flying Tigers, known otherwise as The 1st American Volunteer Group, a fighter squadron that flew missions against the Japanese in World War II. Looks like Woo is giving George Lucas and his WWII Red Tails movie a run for its money.

Woo promises that Flying Tiger Heroes will feature "the most spectacular aerial battle scenes ever seen in Chinese cinema." The Flying Tigers destroyed some 300 enemy aircraft while only suffering 14 causalities during the war. The planes the squadron flew were featured the very recognizable shark-teeth design on the nose (seen in the photo above). "This is an extremely important production," Woo explained. "This Yunnan-themed film emphasizes China-US friendship and the contributions of the Flying Tigers and the people of Yunnan during the War of Resistance." The cast will feature a mix of Hollywood and Chinese movie stars.

Either this means that Woo isn't directing that rumored "Romeo and Juliet War Epic" next or that project has been put on the backburner (or was just a rumor to begin with). I'm not the biggest fan of Woo's work in Hollywood, so if he continues to stay in China and make movies there, maybe I'll actually gain some respect for him again. I'm actually looking forward to seeing these upcoming aerial WWII movies, so bring 'em on!

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Lazarus from Sparta

Jhon Woo...Where's my Hard Boiled movie sequel...better yet...where's my The Killer remake/reboot sequel! Who cares about a WW2 flick anymore!
navidos

Alex You need to start with Red.Cliff !! Masterpiece ! shows everyone in Hollywood How to make a war movie Drama with laughter Characters you care about ( i'm talking 2 u michael bay ...)
James

Awesome! I'd love to see what John Woo can do with dogfights. Definitely a master of action.
Chris H.

Red Tails will do better globally because Europeans don't count the pacific theater as part of World War II. Whenever I debate with Brits about the war they say, "We were fighting when the war started, you took your sweet time then cleaned up after everything was done with". And they say that Americans are ignorant. It's a statement I have heard many times and is wrong on many different levels, but what I'm getting at is for Europeans the war started when Poland got invaded, and that's all there is to it. Nevermind that Japan had launched an invasion into Korea, Manchuria, China, and surrounding pacific regions years before Nazi troops entered Poland.
DoomCanoe

John Woo... you ruined and robbed Jean Clad Van Dam after he created you! this is the only reason i refuse to see your movies. although you are pretty damn good at your job
DoomCanoe

ha and i ruined the spelling of his name *Jean-Clade Van Damme sorry Jean-Clade
Janny

If people are interested in movies like these I would recommend Dark Blue World... same type of premise
racist mao

what's with all this ching chang chong nonsense!?
Dim_one

Woo must take the best from Pearl Harbour & Sky Crawlers. Action in Red Cliff 1 & 2 was good.
Color Blind

Im actually looking forward to this. I love dogfights in the air. If Woo can capture the intensity like the air sequences in say, Pearl Harbor, then I'm in. Im also a sucker for war films be it WW2 or not [Hurt Locker looks damn good] And there's no need to hate on the race of the people no# 8. If China was an Axis power instead of an Ally, you'd be speaking Japanese or German. I guaran-F' in- Teee. Or worse yet, you'da never been born, your parents woulda been slaves or slaughtered in a camp after they worked em to death. I hate China's way of government sometimes, but I dont hate the people. Go see Red Cliff, and you'll see how much John Woo has improved in his directing abilities.
M. Lee

Mr. Woo, I know a 92 year old Chinese man who helped train the Flying Tiger pilots. He mind is still very sharp and he has kept a lot of memorabilia of the the celebrated WWII flying fighters. Please email me so that I can introduce you to him who lives in Hawaii. email: mmlee96701@yahoo.com