The names John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat are both synonymous with Hong Kong action flicks; after a string of successful films together including A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer and Hard Boiled, Woo came over to North America where he helmed such movies as Hard Target, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible II. Now for the first time in 15 years, Woo has returned to his homeland where he was supposed to reteam with Chow Yun-Fat for The Battle of Red Cliff, a Chinese historic war epic. Unfortunately for Woo, it isn’t turning out to be just like old times.

Chow has reportedly walked off the set of the movie, which had already started production. According to him, he wasn’t given adequate time to prepare for his role, receiving the script only one week before the shoot. Producer Terence Chang, however, has a different side to the story. It seems that Chow Yun-Fat is a big star now (or at least he thinks he is) and his on set demands were not being met. He was also reportedly a bit miffed that he was being forced to take a pay cut and could only receive his $5 million paycheck in installments. Apparently Chow was quoted as saying that the producers of the film needed to “get used to the way things are done in Hollywood”. Ouch. Well, I’d take everything here with a grain of salt, but it certainly sounds like someone’s head has gotten a little bit big. Of course, he did just star in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. No wonder he thinks he’s the shit. It remains to be seen if Chow Yun-Fat has left the movie permanently, but things are currently not looking so good for the project.

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