John Woo and Tsui Hark to join forces for an action movie

"A Better Tomorrow 2" Japanese Theatrical Poster

In the late 1980s, director John Woo and producer Tsui Hark dominated the heroic bloodshed scene with the classics A Better Tomorrow and A Better Tomorrow 2. Unfortunately, the success of these films led to creative differences between the two. The duo ultimately clashed and went separate ways. Hark took over directing duties for A Better Tomorrow 3 and Woo went on to do The Killer. Their partnership was over.

Now, 25 years later, an article hints that the two have patched things up and may join forces for a new action film. According to kungfucinema’s mark187, who translated the story, this may be a two picture deal between them (i.e. one directed by Woo and produced by Hark; the other directed by Hark and produced by Woo).

The thought of Woo going back to his A Better Tomorrow roots is an action fan’s wet dream. And the fact that Hark is involved makes it even wetter. With Woo, Hark and Ringo Lam (see Lam’s comeback) helming a string of shoot ’em ups, Hong Kong action cinema will explode in the next few years, just as it did 25 years ago. And who knows… maybe Chow Yun-Fat is more than likely to reunite with the guys that made him an international superstar.

Update: John Woo has just wrapped up his upcoming film, The Crossing. His next film will be Flying Tigers, followed by his remake of Seijun Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast. After Beast, he’ll be going back to his “heroic bloodshed” roots with Tsui Hark. In a recent interview with Jaynestars, here’s what Woo had to say: “Tsui Hark and I both cherish the times when we used to work together and would like to rekindle our working relationship. We’d like to make two films together, in the spirit of A Better Tomorrow. At this point, we’re just thinking about the script and have no concrete dates for shooting. But this is something we’re both looking forward to.”

BREAKING NEWS: In our last update, Woo said that he would like to team up with Hark to do an A Better Tomorrow-type movie. Now it looks like he’s interested in doing a wuxia movie with him instead. Here’s what Woo recently told Yahoo: “I hope to work with Tsui Hark on a Wuxia film… he is a genius at his craft and has a lot of ideas.” – Thanks to DiP!