How big a deal is it for the Chinese film industry that Hard Boiled director John Woo has returned to Asia where he is spending cash by the truckload on his upcoming historical war epic Battle of Red Cliff? Pretty damn big. Big enough that China's CCTV just broadcast live from the set for a solid two and a half hours while Woo shot a major battle scene. Yeah, you read that right: two and half hours of live television broadcasting the creation of a major action sequence from the film. To the best of my knowledge this sort of thing has never been done before and, frankly, I'm shocked Woo allowed it to happen. Because, you know, shooting large large scale action sequences isn't already stressful enough without having a camera crew loitering around recording your every move.

In related news, hey look! That's Tony Leung in that still, so he's still in the movie. For this week, at least. Time will tell what the future holds for the revolving door that is the cast in this thing. Chow Yun Fat apparently remains out after two abortive attempts to get him in.

Thanks to the wonders of ones and zeros travelling very fast over telephone lines clips of the TV coverage are now available online.