John Woo Yu-sen's return to Chinese-language filmmaking is set to continue with a war romance set in the year when the Kuomintang government fled to Taiwan and the People's Republic was established in Beijing.
The project, budgeted at US$40 million and titled simply 1949, was announced in Cannes, where the filmmaker was promoting Red Cliff, his two-part epic set in the three kingdoms period, to be released in Hong Kong on July 10.
Producer Terence Chang said the script, which was written by Wong Hui-ling, had yet to be passed by mainland censors, but China Film Group, the country's major studio, has already committed itself to funding the project.
Production will begin by the end of the year, with an expected release in December next year. Few details about the film were unveiled yesterday, with Woo only revealing that it would be split between Shanghai and the Taiwanese port city of Keelung.
Chang said the film, which Woo describes as mainly a movie about 'three love stories', would have several action scenes, including 'two battle scenes and a ship sinking'.
Only two of the film's principal leads were announced and present in Cannes yesterday - Chang Chen, who worked with Woo on Red Cliff, and Korean actress Song Hye-kyo.
