Production on John Woo's new movie Chi Bi, or The Battle of Red Cliff, has been stopped after a stuntman died in a serious fire.
A stuntman named by the AFP news agency as 23-year-old stuntman Lu Yanqing was killed after fire broke out during filming of a scene on the historical epic, while three others were injured in the incident.
"The fire broke out early Monday morning when the crew were shooting a scene in which a small, smoking boat crashed with a large ancient war vessel," Xinhua news agency said.
Though the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, it has said that crew at the northern Beijing location saw a flame shoot some 30 metres into the air.
The film, which has an $80 million (£40 million) budget, has been billed as Asia's biggest cinema production and features actors such as Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
Set in the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China between 220 and 280 AD, Chi Bi is adapted from the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and culminates in the titular battle of Red Cliff in which some 2,000 ships were burned.
According to the Beijing News, Woo was in Hong Kong and not on set at the time of the accident.
10/06/2008 12:36:19
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