John Woo trades doves for ‘Flying Tigers’ for his next project

"Hard Boiled" Japanese Theatrical Poster

During 2013’s Beijing International Film Festival, an announcement was made that John Woo (The Killer, Hard Boiled) will direct a WWII action-drama called Flying Tigers (aka Flying Tiger Heroes). The film will be shot as a two-part movie and a 6-hour television series. Terence Chang, Woo’s long time friend and favored partner, will produce.

Flying Tigers will tell the story of WWII American volunteer fighter pilots who flew successful missions against the Japanese without suffering heavy casualties.

“Flying Tigers is a project that I have always wanted to do, because this is a story that expresses the courage, resourcefulness, friendship, and spirit of both the Chinese and American people and pilots. It promotes friendship between the two nations,” Woo said.

I guess you can say goodbye to John Woo’s proposed remakes of Seijin Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai for now. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather see Woo make a non-historical movie starring Chow Yun Fat, buckets of blood and a pair of Beretta 92FS handguns; so hopefully, his collaboration with Tsui Hark (read the story) will make that happen.

Updates: In a recent interview with THR, here’s what John Woo had to say about his next movie: “After shooting The Crossing (aka Love and Let Love), I will start Flying Tigers. As we are still writing the script, it doesn’t take too much of my time yet. I can still handle the workload.” It was also noted that Flying Tigers will open in China as a two-part film and elsewhere as a six-hour TV miniseries.