Trivia / Red Cliff

• Cast the Runner-Up: Tony Leung Chiu-wai was John Woo's first choice to play Zhuge Liang, but he turned it down; Leung came back onto the set as Zhou Yu, due to the urgency in being unable to cast Chow Yun-fat.
• Dueling Movies: With another Three Kingdoms movie, subtitled Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon, set several chapters later and starring Andy Lau as Zhao Yun.
• Fatal Method Acting: While filming a scene in which a small boat was set on fire and was to ram a larger boat, the fire spread quickly out of control, killing stuntman Lu Yanqing and injuring six others.
• Reality Subtext: This movie is about Wu and Shu, two powers claiming the right to rule all of China, temporarily forming an alliance so they can defeat an attack by Wei. It's a co-production between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, two powers claiming the right to rule all of China (including each other's territory) who have historically had some tense moments.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ken Watanabe was originally selected to portray Cao Cao, but Chinese audiences were too vocal in protesting having a Japanese actor portray a known Chinese historical figure. John Woo wanted to avoid Unfortunate Implications and so went with Zhang Fengyi.
  • Chow Yun-fat would have been playing Zhou Yu, and was earlier considered to portray Liu Bei, but pulled out following a dispute with the producer for not having enough time to prepare for the script.

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