Flying Tigers

Tom Cruise Developing FLYING TIGERS Film to Rival John Woo’s; NOT Attached to EL PRESIDENTE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: October 8th, 2010 at 7:54 am

We’ve previously reported that director John Woo was working on a film called Flying Tigers, which is about Chinese fighter pilots in World War II.  It’s based on the true story of U.S. Army Air Corp Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, who trained the first generation of Chinese fighter pilots to take on Japan in WWII.  Now it looks like Tom Cruise wants to make that same movie, but as a rival picture.  Deadline reports that while it looks like Woo’s film will go before cameras first, Cruise is still moving ahead with screenwriter Kirk Ellis (John Adams) rewriting a draft by Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie) and Mason Alley.  Last October, Cruise was attached to Woo’s Flying Tigers, but it looks like they’ve split ways for one reason or another.

In a related story, Deadline also reports that Cruise is sadly not attached to the action-comedy El Presidente.  That film would have seen him re-team with Jack Nicholson and playing an overly-zealous secret service agent tasked with protecting a pain-in-the-ass ex-president.

John Woo’s FLYING TIGERS to Go IMAX; Wants Liam Neeson to Star

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: August 19th, 2010 at 9:07 am

John Woo is teaming with IMAX to bring his upcoming film Flying Tigers to the really big screen. The story centers on “U.S. Army Air Corp Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault — the contentious American officer whose volunteer Flying Tigers squadron trained the first generation of Chinese fighter pilots taking on Japan in WWII.”  IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond told THR that “Woo’s passion and the story lend themselves in scope to an IMAX film.  John is so visual and his great talent will help us from the start to make sure that the IMAX version of [Flying Tigers] realizes the technology’s potential.”

Regarding who will play Chennault, Woo says “It’s got to be a star but it’s hard to find the right one, because at that time Chennault was almost 50 years old. Ideally, I’ve been thinking of Liam Neeson as the title actor.”  Woo would also like Chinese actor Liu Ye (City of Life and Death) to play the role of a young pilot in training opposite Chennault.  Pre-production on the $90 million film is set to begin next month in China.  Filming is slated to begin next spring for a late 2011 release date.

Tom Cruise Attached to John Woo’s Upcoming Film FLYING TIGERS

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: October 27th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

Buried in a recent article from Variety was the news that Tom Cruise would be re-teaming with his “Mission: Impossible 2″ director John Woo for Woo’s next film, “Flying Tigers”.  Steve spoke with Woo a couple weeks ago for Woo’s new film, “Red Cliff” which is the most successful film in Chinese history and it’s received positive reviews in this hemisphere as well.  Woo mentioned his next film would be “Flying Tigers” and that it would have the same budget as “Red Cliff” ($80 million) and focus on the friendship between Americans and Chinese soldiers in World War II as they fought the Japanese.  I wonder if this could be an unofficial sequel to “The Last Samurai” but this time Cruise ends up saving the Chinese instead.

Hit the jump to see Steve’s full interview with Woo.  They begin speaking about “Flying Tigers” at the 3-minute mark.

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