Tony Leung heads back to The Battle Of Red Cliff

John Woo must be suffering from whiplash. One minute Tony Leung ditches his epic war movie The Battle Of Red Cliff, because he couldn’t commit to the gruelling six-month shooting stint due to schedule clashes.

Then only this week, Woo loses pal and star Chow Yun-Fat after a clash of interests (we’re still trying to work out the exact reason behind that one).

But now Leung is back, planning to join the $70 million film in Hebei, an area outside China’s capital next week. Has he been hired to replace Yun-Fat? No one will say, but Woo’s production partner and usual spokesgob certainly seemed happy to have him back: "Leung's one of the best actors working in Chinese cinema today, I'm so glad that he's coming back to the production," he blabbed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter .

While Leung had been replaced by actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, it’s entirely possible that he’ll now step into the vacant lead role. Whatever happens, Chang seems convinced that these casting blips won’t affect the film’s schedule. "Nothing is affected because we have so many characters in the story and it's so complicated,” he explained. “One actor will not affect the production."

We’ll say this – there’d better be a hell of a Making Of featurette on the eventual DVD...

Source: ( Hollywood Reporter )