We recently mentioned Zhang Yimou's latest adaptation of Blood Simple, 三枪拍案惊奇 (Amazing Tales: Three Guns). The film stars Sun Honglei and Yan Ni of the lovely 斗牛 (Cow), and the peculiarity here was that one half of the film would be a comedy, the second a thriller. Not exactly an easy feat to pull off organically within the same film, but when we're talking separated tones used for each half, then things are even more intriguing. The film moves the original story of the 1980s Coen Brothers film to a noodle shop in the middle of the desert in Gansu Province, and the first trailer released already graces us with the three-barrel gun of the title.

In the film, Ni Dahong plays a stingy tavern owner who hires Sun Honglei's character to kill his wife (Yan) and the waiter she slept with (Xiao Shenyang). While Zhang's last film was 2006's 满城尽带黄金甲 (Curse of the Golden Flower), he also directed the 60th Anniversary parade, and the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Amazing Tales: Three Guns is set for a December release.