Tony Leung in Woo's 'Red Cliff'

Actor back after Chow Yun-Fat leaves

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, April 19th 2007 at 12:04 AM

This week Chow Yun-Fat dropped out of John Woo's The Battle of Red Cliff, but today The Hollywood Reporter tells us Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who most of you will remember from Infernal Affairs and Hero has decided to come back. Leung had also dropped off the project, but has decided to rejoin following the departure of Yun-Fat. Whether he is replacing Yun-Fat or what exactly the problems were are unknown.

Leung previously quit the movie citing scheduling conflicts, at the time he was cast as Zhuge Liang. If he was indeed replacing Yun-Fat he would be taking on the role of Zhou Yu. Being the replacement only makes sense considering Leung was already replaced in his original role by Takeshi Kaneshiro.

Producer Terence Chang told The Hollywood Reporter, "Nothing is affected because we have so many characters in the story and it's so complicated, one actor will not affect the production."

The film is based on historical events that took place in China 1,700 years ago and on a chapter in the popular novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." Some 600 years after its publication, the book is still widely read in China.